Once More With Changes
by The Archsage
Summary: The moon blew up. On our hero's side, only Dart survived. The creator Soa decides to give Dart a chance to fix the mistakes they made. Taking him up on his offer, Dart redoes his journey. Rating may change. Pairings, if any are undecided.
1. Chapter 1

So I've been getting bored lately, with a bad case of writers block on my other stories, and recently started playing 'Legend of Dragoon' again. Then I thought, this is such a great game, and yet there are so few fan fiction stories for it. It was then that I decided to do one. I've looked for some, but I can't find any that do what I was looking for which further cemented my idea to do this. No one has redone their adventure. Personally I'm disappointed about that fact. It was and is an amazing story, but like all amazing stories, certainly some people have thought of adding their own twist on things.

**_Disclaimer:_** _I do not own The Legend Of Dragoon, for if I did I'd be in the process of having it remade with better graphics,. voices, and a battle system more like Final Fantasy 12's, which is the best battle system to date in my opinion._

**Chapter 1**

Dart Feld had always been brave. Not to the point of stupidity of course. He was also a fairly outgoing kind of guy. He didn't share everything with anyone, but he was by no means silent. In fact he had been told he could be quite boisterous when he got going, or when he was drunk. He was also never one to mope about and be all moody like some of the so called 'pretty boys' were. He wasn't like that, and was more popular with the girls then any of them were. He had never felt guilt for very long before in his life though, except when everyone was forcing him to lead Shana on when he didn't feel like that towards her. No, he always remained confident that his decisions were the best ones to make at the time of making them, based on what he knew at that time.

But right now Dart felt nothing but guilt. None of them had made it out of the moon before it exploded. They weren't fast enough. Dart however was still alive. Dart had taken the last 20 minutes to gather up all the Dragoon stones. They were settled into a circle.

The only reason he had survived was because of insanely bulky Dragoon armor. The side of his face however had been burned and was only just barely healed over, probably because the White silver Dragoon stone had landed next to him when he hit the ground, and it's light acted in response to his stone, healing him.

"Damn it." Dart cursed. He looked down at the red, violet, blue, green, white, black and golden little stone sized souls. They were glowing in unison. He didn't know why. He briefly entertained the thought that all 8 of the dragoon stones in existence might consider him their rightful user. Like that would help. The only other survivor from the moon had been Melbu Frahma. Dart had watched him fly off in some direction. He had no idea how he survived, but figured he must have done something. Perhaps he had completed his evolution or something like that.

Either way Dart was to weak to even call out for him to stop. It had taken him a while to get back his energy. The world was doomed unfortunately. Dart couldn't fight him alone. He was lucky to survive one encounter with him, but to survive another, and on his own? No chance.

Looking back down at the dragon souls, Dart reach into his satchel and pulled out his own stone. The divine dragon's soul. At this point the other seven stones began to glow madly. Shrugging Dart placed his stone down in the center of the circle of stones.

The resulting glow nearly blinded Dart. When he opened his eyes 9 ghostly images were before him. The Dragon Kings ugly huge eye was less then 3 feet in front of him, with six smaller ones surrounding it. The other seven large forms were behind it or above it. The final form was average in height and standing next to the Dragon King.

"What the hell?" Dart exclaimed as he jumped back, jumping to his feet, despite the pain it brought him, to even stand, let alone move that quickly. "Who are you? Why did you appear with them?"

The ghostly image of a man, or was it a woman? Either way, the ghostly humanoid image spoke up. "I am the creator. I believe you call me Soa."

Dart nearly fainted. "The hell does the creator want with me?"

"Simple. I made a mistake. People often believe there is a Heaven and Hell, and yet there is neither. I am merely a being of a different race from another planet. Your world, I admit was a game to me. But I never intended for this to happen. The dragon Campaign was never supposed to have happened, and I had thought it ended peacefully enough. Now, while I can do many things, I can't do everything. But I can fix what has happened to you and and your friends. Indirectly of course. I'm not so powerful I can simply erase what has happened. What I can do however, is ensure _you_ fix it. I can reverse time for this planet, as I was the one who created it. Unfortunately that would mean everything simply happens again. Nothing would change."

"Get to the point. I'm sure you wouldn't tell me that if there wasn't a way around it." Dart growled. His fear of the powerful being before him gone in anger at being taunted like this. He was waving a potential way to save his friends in front of him.

"Well, of course. I created this amulet a little while ago. It isn't affected by time travel, and the wearer isn't either. Well, your body would be but your mind wouldn't be. Unfortunately, I can't go back farther then when I created it without making you forget everything, which would be about a year ago. Give or take a few months." Soa shrugged, seemingly more human like then one might assume. Considering he made the species, it's not too hard to believe that the more intelligent species might be more like their creator then they thought.

Continuing the creator of Endiness answered an obvious question of Darts. "I know your dying to ask, but I'll leave it up to you. Save anyone you feel should be saved, and whatnot. I don't care what happens this time. If you screw up, I ain't giving you another shot. Just remember; let's say you do save Knight boy from his death, someone else might die, or you could ruin the potential relationship going on between Al and the sexy princess from Tiberoa."

"What?" Dart asked. Who would have thought the creator was into his creations enough to call them sexy? That was just weird. Not like Dart could disagree though, she was sexy.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm pulling from your view on her." Soa pointed out. "Oh, should have mentioned that. My species takes our personalities from those we're talking to. It's like talking to yourself really, only we each know different things."

"Well, whatever. Let's do this thing." Dart announced standing up. He was eager to do this as fast as possible.

"Good." Soa announced. The dragoon stones powers of now are going to be sacrificed to summon it here. They'll still have it when you go back so don't worry."

As he said, the stones vanished and the ghostly images of the 8 dragons behind him vanished and floating in front of him was the amulet that would protect Dart's mind from being rewound. 

"Also, when you get back, the gem in the middle of it will vanish. Strange though, it's a perfect fit for you Dragoon stone isn't it?" Soa pointed out in a question before waving his arms dramatically. Dart's vision went black.

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As Dart's vision slowly faded back into place he nearly stumbled. Gathering his wits about him he noticed he was in a forest area alone.

"Weird."

A horse's neighing got his attention. And a voice alerted him to when he was. "Who are you?"

"Are you a mercenary of Basil?"

"Answer!"

'_Just After Seles was attacked._ _Wonder if I still have my skill?'_ Dart thought. It was unlikely he was as strong or as skilled as he once was, but he was probably still more skilled then before. Drawing his weapon, he nearly forgot about the dragon Feybrand.

"Oh shit." he answered and instead of attacking like the soldiers thought he might, he jumped between them rolling back up and awaiting Feybrand's arrival. He doubted he'd beat the dragon alone at the moment, but maybe he could injure it in his escape.

The soldiers turned to face him and as such were knocked off their horses when Feybrand appeared. Said horses took off.

"Well, this looks bad." Dart muttered as he backed away. Dodging each attack. He maneuvered himself quickly to avoid falling trees. Shortly, he was back to where Rose and he had first met. "Right, this seems as good a spot as any."

The dragon's next attack left a large gash in it's offending appendage, as Dart had dodged and struck back. The dragon didn't even notice the injury.

Dart cursed. "Damn. Too strong. I can't hit it's weak points without a few distractions. What do I do?"

He didn't have to think long, for, like last time, Rose landed next to him, grabbed hold of him and rocketed them behind some rocks.

This time Dart mouthed a quick thanks, to which she nodded to.

The Dragon left after it decided it lost it's lunch.

"Thanks for saving me. I'm don't think I could have lasted much longer. Is there anything I could do to repay you?"

"Your welcome. And don't worry about it, I couldn't just let you die while I was perfectly capable of helping. But your very skilled to have injured it at all, you should be proud of your skill. Still, that village could have been destroyed without a dragon... why would it be here?" The last part was muttered to herself.

"Seles? It was attacked then." Dart questioned. He knew it had been. One doesn't forget their town being attacked very easily.

"Yea. There probably isn't much left though." She shrugged.

"Still, it's my home, and I have to at least check for survivors." Dart answered. Rushing off Dart didn't notice her Dragoon stone shine.

Racing up the hillside, and down the other side of it upon reaching the climax of the hill, Dart leaped over the fence, and didn't wait to hear what the soldiers had to say. He simply ran one through, and decapitated the other with a spinning slice at neck level.

Going over to the villager who was near death, Dart knelt beside him. "Sorry I couldn't get here sooner. Your death won't be in vain."

With that Dart went to close his eyes. "I'm not dead yet. Though I am... close to it."

"Oh... well, you kinda ruined the mood I had going." Dart complained lightly, to help ease his suffering. He had a nasty stomach wound. "Don't worry though, now I'm here everything is under control. I know about Shana. I heard some soldiers talking. I'm heading there after I run the stragglers out of Seles."

"Thank you... Dart."

With that the old man went limp.

Dart wandered over to Plos and picked him up by the shoulder. "Hey! At least your still alive. It's just a flesh wound you have."

"Dart... There is something you should know." Plos started.

"Don't worry. I'll get her back. I already know about Shana." Dart told him.

Just then a soldier in heavy armor showed up. "What's this? Someone still breathing. Besting my subordinates is no reason to be confident."

"Don't wanna hear it. Are you going to talk, or are you going to die?" Dart snarled. Any one who worked in Hellena Prison eventually became worthless husks of their former selves. They had to be cruel and vile in order to survive there, and survive under the command of Fruegel.

"Eager for death are you? Then come at me boy."

The commanders subordinates attacked first. Dart found them painfully weak parrying both swings at the same time and cutting both down before their second attempts could be made. The commander followed up with a sweeping swing hoping to either take Dart down in one swing or knock him off balance. Dart of course saw it, and reacted by ducking and _punching _the commander in the face. With the helmet on, it failed to hurt him but it certainly turned his helmet askew, rendering him blind.

From there all it took was a good sword stroke. Kicking the armored commander over, Dart stabbed his sword into the previously askew helmet.

"Right then. You two brats in the house, help everyone here that you can. I'm going to Hellena." Dart ordered.

The two kids who were hiding suddenly poked their heads out. The girl spoke up. "Dart! Okay, we'll help."

Dart headed for the town exit. On the way someone stopped him. A person who looked angry. "Why weren't you here? If you were here, Shana wouldn't have been taken. How am I supposed to confess to her if she been taken by the imperial army!"

Looking annoyed, Dart decked him, sending him sprawling to the ground, eagle spread, and his face with a look of shock. "It's not my fault I wasn't here. Just because I'm not omnipotent doesn't make it my fault. Perhaps it's your fault for not trying to learn how to fight? If you had you could've protected her yourself. Of course fighting a squad sent to destroy the town isn't going to be stopped by one or two men. The only way that would happen is if that one man was a Dragon Knight, a Dragoon."

Dart left him there and continued leaving the village, saying goodbye only to Tasman. As he left he wondered if he'd still need Rose to awaken his Dragoon powers for him. He didn't think so. But it would be better if she did, so that it wouldn't lead to anyone questioning him on the matter. It's not like it mattered, he could do just fine without them. At least until he fought Kongol again. That man was a demon when it came down to strength.

The forest outside of Seles wasn't very large, and Helena wasn't too far from Seles either. About half a day's walk. Too bad he didn't have a horse. He'd steal one, but then he remembered Rose had said something once about following him to Helena.

'_Shit! What if she heard me talk of the Dragoon back in Seles. Well, I didn't say anything curious. As far as she knows I'm just a curious soul interested in the Dragon Campaign. Still, I should be more careful about what I say.'_ Dart thought as he walked.

The few monsters that dared to challenge him met their ends swiftly. They were no challenge. He didn't even use his sword. The little martial arts Haschel had taught him when they had traveled together was more then enough for the weakling monsters in this area. It's why Seles had no real defense. It wasn't exactly difficult to kill the monsters in this area.

Remembering that the last time he had gone to Hellena he had run the entire way, Dart started on his run. _'Still, I wonder if I should tell them what happened? If I do, I won't feel bad about this, but what if they start relying on me too much... Nah, I'll tell 'em some things, but only if it becomes necessary. I guess the main issue is making sure we win. And what about Shana... I tried to feel more for her, but every time I tried, I still kept thinking of her as a sister.' _

"GAGH! I'll worry about this later. For now, I have to get in there, and save Shana." Dart roared as he ran, getting annoyed with his thoughts. He'd have mentioned Lavits but he kept enough sense in his sudden anger to his thoughts to know that if Rose was anywhere nearby listening to him as she followed him, she'd wonder how he knew the captain of the 1st Knighthood of Basil was in Hellena. And Rose could make things uncomfortable by bringing things up at just the right time to make things worse.

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Dart never liked Hellena. He felt it was far too dreary, and leaning back far too much. Both times he had entered, he worried the damn thing was going to fall into the ocean. If he could swim that wouldn't be a problem, but alas, he could not swim so he always held that small fear that the prison would fall into the ocean while he was in it.

But that was fine. He had a mission and focusing totally on that helped him avoid thinking about where the prison could potentially fall. Getting to Lavits had been easy. He had even managed to save both of Lavits' subordinates. Once the two had swords it was easy to see why they were part of the 1st Knighthood. They were only slightly lacking in skill to be on par with Lavits. Of course, Dart could fight circles around them. Lavits would catch up. It happened before too. Dart being much more skilled, and Lavits slowly catching up, viewing it as a friendly rivalry. Of course Dart was much faster then Lavits, and more flexible, so his movements could be more eccentric, while Lavits was restricted by his thick, and heavy armor.

"I guess this girl your looking for is on the third floor." Lavits told him as they exited the cell block they were in. "Just why would you risk your life to save her though? Wife? Girlfriend?"

"Nah, nothing like that. It's just her family took me in when I was around 5 or 6 and I grew up with her. I see her as my little sister. She was just a baby when they took me in. I left 5 years ago to hunt someone down. The thing that killed my real family. I just got back, and heard that my village got sacked because some freak here wanted her imprisoned. Don't rightly know why, but I'm not gonna let my little sister be used and abused in a place like this." Dart answered, hoping with the whole view as a little sister, people wouldn't be trying to force him together with Shana. It was bad for her, and him. He didn't see her that way, and they all encouraged her crush. This time around though, who knows. Something different might happen.

"I see. Does she think the same way?" Lavits asked.

"... I hope so." Dart answered. He didn't want to lie so he simply answered with something that couldn't be considered a lie in anyway. He really did hope so, although he knew it was unlikely.

The two walked up to the 3rd cell block door, Lavits had ordered the two Knights to head for Basil and wait at an abandoned shack before the cave system for them, and that if in one day they didn't catch up, to head back without them.

Unfortunately the 3rd floor cell block was locked. After checking the room next to them they found that it was intensely guarded.

"Dart, up here." Lavits whispered. The two snuck up to stand above them all.

"This place is too well guarded. Either Shana is higher up, or she's in the 3rd cell block. My guess is the cell block. Nothing is higher but Fruegel's room, so..." Lavits trailed off.

"What?" Dart asked. He was stumped himself. He couldn't remember how he got Shana out. He knew he had to find a key, but he couldn't remember where it was.

"I found the key."

"Oh."

"Yea."

"They're stupid enough to just leave it lying around?" Dart questioned.

"Hey, don't knock what works for us." Lavits shrugged. "But I see your point. In any case, let's go."

The duo left quickly and were face to face with three guards in front of a cell. Well, close to it. They were hiding, wondering if the guards would make any rounds.

"Why is it necessary for this much security for one little girl?" One asked.

"Who knows. The emperor has his own plans. Best just to listen to Fruegel." another answered.

"Heh who cares. We should take advantage of the situation. I mean look, she's bent over and waiting for us. Two of us play lookout, and the other has fun with her. Pretty simple huh?" the third one suggested.

"I like that idea." the second one agreed.

"I'll go first." the first one answered, moving to the door, when he suddenly slumped to the ground.

Lavits no longer held his spear. It was firmly implanted in the one reaching for the door's brain. Dart had moved with record speed sheathing his sword in an other's eye socket in 5 seconds flat. Lavits had been only two seconds behind him wrapping his arms around the last ones neck while he twisted said arms. The end result was a warden with a broken neck. Needless to say, heads shouldn't turn 360 degrees. The warden was dead.

Dart quickly unlocked the door.

"Huh?" Shana asked intelligently when Dart shook her with his foot. She had apparently fallen asleep like that. "D-Dart? Is that... It's Dart."

She jumped up spun and ran into Dart's arms. "I was so scared. I didn't know what was going to happen, or what was going on."

"I know. But we don't have time for reunions. We have to move. There is a bow and quiver next to the door. Can you shoot?"

"Uh... yes. I went hunting with dad a few times in the last 2 years. I think I'm a pretty good shot. I haven't missed anything yet after all."

"Good."

Racing out of the cell Dart tapped Lavits on the shoulder. Unfortunately just as Shana got behind them again after picking up the bow and quiver of arrows, they were surrounded by three more wardens. Lavits impaled the first, Dart parried and countered the second. Shana was only slightly hesitant. When the arrow let loose though, it embedded itself between the thirds eyes, just before Dart had blocked his attack.

"Nice shot, Shana." Lavits told her. "Now let's go before reinforcements come."

The trio left quickly. Shana a little behind the two guys. She wasn't feeling to well about killing someone.

Once the three had made it to the exit. They noticed perhaps the largest Warden in the prison.

"Dart... that's Fruegel." Lavits whispered. He lead the way to the large man. "This guy is so bad, even his own countrymen and wardens hate him."

"Heh, so your the 'red one'. And the head Knight of Basil is with you too. Too bad your both going to die. And the girl is going back to her cell."

"Not if I can help it." Dart responded.

"Fruegel, you will die here today." Lavits followed up.

Quickly dispatching the two lackeys that attempted to do good by Fruegel's side, Fruegel whistled once they fell. Two new guards ran into the area standing on either side of Fruegel. Shana's arrow slipped past one's guard and settled nicely in his skull. His last act was to throw a magic element. It was mild and hardly even singed them, but it was enough of a distraction for the other to take a shot at Dart. His reflexes were too well trained though, and he dropped to the ground kicking out into the would be assassin's gut, sending him sprawling.

Leaping to his feet by mean's of the same movement, Dart plants his sword into the man's abdomen before twisting. Fruegel in that time had swung his club while running at Lavits. He had been hit twice by Shana once in the shoulder and once in the gut.

Lavits guarded as best he could, but was ultimately swung aside.

Dart took over and leaped at the large man, swinging his sword down on the giants head. Fruegel however was able to raise his club in time to block. He swung around fast to give Dart the same treatment as Lavits, but upon his return to Darts spot, Dart was gone.

Lavits' spear however was sailing towards the large man. He quickly put his club in the way and watched as the spear imbedded in it. Lavits himself grabbed hold of said spear, having cleared the distance between them rather quickly. He pulled and the club fell out of Fruegel's hands and rolled to the floor leaving the spear in Lavits' hands. Lavits suddenly tackled Fruegel, while something hit his legs from behind.

Dart had Maneuvered himself behind Fruegel and together Dart and Lavits brought the brute down, both stood breathing hard. "I'd say we should finish him but we have to move quickly."

Besides the fact that both of them were tired, from having done so much fighting, Lavits more so then Dart, they really did have to move. Fruegel was starting to get back up, and reinforcements were on their way. They quickly broke into the stables nearby and stole a few horses. Each riding separate.

Their leave of the prison had been just as narrow as the original escape. They pushed the horses hard. Unfortunately seconds after the gate had been closed it opened again, to allow it's own cavalry out to give chase.

Barely ten minutes in and two of the horses had been struck by arrows and were incapable of moving at top speeds. Quickly the trio left to the horses behind, running in another direction, and instead moving on foot, taking whatever bags had been pre-attached to the saddle. Luckily they came upon rather unsteady ground, not good for riding. It would force their pursuers to chase them on foot.

"Damn... don't they... ever... give up!" Lavits breathed out hard.

"They probably would have by now. Unfortunately, a fate worse then mere exhaustion awaits them if the fail." Dart answered.

"Quickly you two." Shana called from ahead. As Lavits and Dart got up and arrows whizzed by and grazed Lavits' leg.

"Son of a..." Lavits nearly cursed. A small cut like that could feel a lot worse then getting massive gash on your back.

"I got you man." Dart called out. He lead Lavits a little ways forward. Shana had pointed to behind a large tree. Quickly the trio piled behind, slinking further and further until they were nearing the river nearby. They could see the wardens, but the wardens couldn't see them. After the warden's left to the Seles area, the group let out a sigh they didn't know they were holding in.

"Guys, this way, there's a cabin a little to the south-west." Lavits told them. Only a 4 minute walk and the cabin was in site. So were the two Knights Lavits sent ahead.

"Sir Lavits!" one of them exclaimed. "Told you he'd make it."

"I never said he wouldn't. I just didn't expect him so soon. I thought he was giving us a day for a reason." the taller of the two responded.

"I'm glad your both safe." Lavits told them.

"Yes, well, You have to go and sit down so I can treat your leg. What if it gets infected?" Shana insisted.

"You must be Miss Shana! Sir Dart's little sister." The taller one exclaimed.

'_Sister...?'_ Shana thought, upset that Dart still didn't view her as a potential love interest, as she began treating Lavits wound.

"Uh...Sir?" Dart said out loud.

"You fought circles around us, whether your a mercenary or not, your better then most Knights, maybe even all Knights, in service to Basil." the shorter one told him."That's why. You helped three Knights escape enemy encampment and your much more skilled then we are. I think we should show you some form of respect."

"I dunno. Lavits and I are pretty close in skill." Dart tried to tell them.

"Don't lie Dart. Your better then I am. I might win if we fought because of my weapons reach and my better strength and defense but, your still more skilled then I am."

"Please can we _not _talk about battle related stuff." Shana asked as she tightened the bandages around Lavits' shin.

It was a silent agreement, but everyone nodded to Shana's words.

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A/N: Hopefully this will appeal to people. I'm not sure if any of you will enjoy this, considering I plan to change a lot of events that happen. Something's will work out better, some things will work out worse. It all comes down to how well I think it'll flow.

Keep in mind people that this was winged, and I have no prior planning for this, so not everything will be perfectly planned. I'd love to have this perfectly planned out, but I have enough planned stories to work on, I find this one to be more relaxing if I just wing it.

Well, like I said, I hope you all enjoyed this. I'm not sure how often I can update, what with other stories to work on, College, girlfriend, and a job, but I will try. I rather enjoyed writing this so I'll probably update eventually regardless of how many people like it, or hated it.


	2. Chapter 2

And so, the story continues... right after this.

One reviewer, and might I say you have the right idea questioning the things I'm doing since it only helps me in the end, mentioned that so far things have been exactly the same as they have been in the game so far. I realize this. Not much has changed save for small minor events. It will be the same in this chapter. For the most part things in the game were going well, up until Hoax. Why bother changing anything before that point? Killing Fruegel early, while a smart idea at first, might have bad effects. I'm not gonna get into details, but changing one thing could change many other things as well.

Besides that, Dart didn't really have time to plan anything out. What with appearing back in time suddenly, a Dragon dawning on him shortly, and his rush to get to Hellena, because he of course had no idea what might have happened to Lavits had he took anytime to plan ahead.

Also, I've read some stories where a character goes back in time to fix things, and they remember every little detail and fix everything. Those stories are, for the most part, bullshit. No one remembers every little detail. Even people with eidetic memory can't remember everything. So unfortunately for Dart, he can't fix every tiny detail that ever went wrong. And if he did, something else would go wrong, to spite him. Possibly even worse then what originally went wrong.

Well, anyways, if anyone has any concerns at all, feel free to let me know. I will keep the story plans to myself, I want you all to be somewhat surprised after all, but I will try to alleviate as many concerns as I can.

Anyways, before this get's too long, here is the next chapter.

**Chapter 2**

"Dart... can you tell me about these last 5 years?" Shana asked. The group of 5 agreed to take a 30 minute break after it became apparent the Hellena guards had been completely lost. The two other Knights of Basil were waiting outside, acting as guards. "I mean, you don't have to..."

"Nah, it's fine." Dart told her. He looked up and crossed his arms in thought before speaking. "I left to search for the Black Monster. The killer of the moon children, so I could avenge my family. The Black Monster destroyed my hometown and if it weren't thanks to my father and mothers actions I'd have died too. It burnt my home to the ground in a single night. It didn't care whether you were old, young, or crippled. If you had any risk of encounter with the moon child, it killed you. After I was safe, Father went back to combat it. He was always an incredibly skilled swordsman, that's why I took up learning the blade from Master Tasman. Not even a few minutes later, mother left to follow him. She was skilled in hand-to-hand combat but nowhere near fathers level. In the end neither of them were strong enough to beat it. In the morning I went into the village to see if anyone survived. All I found was my father's red stone. It always fascinated me cause it looks like a shiny red eye."

Taking it out he wasn't surprised when he didn't feel much power from it. Rose had activated it the first time after all. Dart guessed it only worked because of his potential as a Dragoon altogether, and his fathers blood running through his own veins.

"Anyways," Dart started again, as he put his stone away, "my journey bore no fruit. I met some interesting people though. I traveled with an old master of martial arts after the first year of my journey. He calls it the Rouge style. He was on a journey himself. Apparently 25 years ago his daughter ran away from the village. He never did tell me her name. Anyways I traveled with him for a few years, before I started back this way. I took me a month to get back, and well, from there it's pretty much obvious. Seles was burned down, and I went to Hellena to get you back. Although I do admit a slight bit of curiosity to see if I could actually break in and out. Despite my journey not ending the way I wanted it too, I must admit I learned a lot, and I definitely got a lot stronger."

"Hm, you know Dart, Minister Noish might know something about this Black Monster. He's pretty knowledgeable himself." Lavits spoke up.

Dart shrugged. "Maybe I'll ask him. Most things I learned when I looked for information on the Black Monster always said it appeared around the time the Dragon Campaign ended and then started talking about that. I know more about the Dragon Campaign then I know about the Black Monster, and it's the Black Monster I was looking for."

Shana spoke up next. "Did you hear anything about its whereabouts? Or see it again?"

"Nope. Actually the reason I was heading back was because it's said the Black Monster only appears once every 108 years, when the Moon that Never sets glows red. The time when the Moon child is born." Dart answered. This was obtainable knowledge. He was simply regurgitating information he could have found in the library of Deningrad in Mille Seseau.

"The Moon child... the being that is said to bring peace to the world." Shana muttered. Everyone knew of the Moon child. Almost always female, and all around a holy symbol for most religions.

"And yet what really comes is destruction." Lavits finished.

"Well, we might as well get going." Dart told them standing up.

Upon getting outside they were greeted to the site of one knight coming back from somewhere.

"Hey, is there an axe in there?" He called out.

"Yea, why?" Lavits answers before Dart.

"We're going to need to cut down a tree. If we can bring it down, we should be able to get across. If not, well, we'll have to wade through the river."

"Got it."

Dart let the three Knights take care of the tree, instead leading Shana to the place where the tree would be.

"Dart?" She asked

"Mm?"

"Do you really see me as just a little sister?" she looked ready to cry.

"Honestly... yes. It's hard to think of you as anything else. I watched you grow up like a brother would, and I can only see you as a sister. I'm sorry for you, cause I'm pretty sure you don't think of me the same way, but I can't help the way I feel." Dart told her. "Maybe one day I might see you as something else, but don't hold your breath."

"Hey!"Lavits called out as the two Knights behind him carried the tree. "We got it. It almost fell into the river below, but these guys thought ahead and grabbed the top of it and made it fall towards us instead of the river."

Setting the tree up to act as a bridge wasn't difficult. The rocks were positioned just right for it to be a near perfect bridge. Wading would have been easy, since the water was barely thigh deep. Still it was getting dark out, and that could prove dangerous. At night time some stronger monsters often came out. Luckily they should make it to the cave system by nightfall.

After crossing their make-shift bridge the field became more open and the trees thinned out. Up ahead was a family of 3.

"Hey." Lavits called out. "What's wrong? Civilians should be pretty careful out here, especially with a young kid."

"What's wrong?" the man spoke up. "You Knights keep fighting and us civilians are left to suffer."

"But, I'm a Knight of Basil. Aren't we allies?" Lavits asked confused.

"We escaped from Kazas. You'll have to excuse him. We couldn't stand living there any longer." the woman responded, trying to save her husbands head.

"Don't worry about it. King Albert has no qualms about helping those suffering due to the war. In fact... you two, stay with these civilians and lead them safely to Basil. Move at their pace. When you get there do the necessities, and then drop them off at my house. It's too big for just my mother and myself, and I'm not there half the time anyways."

"Sir." the two Knights saluted.

"Well, then, Dart, Shana lets keep moving." Lavits finished his speech.

The 2 hour long journey to the cave was uneventful, as was the night that followed. Setting up camp was a simple matter of making a fire and catching a few fish.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Come morning, Lavits put out the fire and woke the other two up. They finished some dried meat they had in the bags, and moved quickly into the cavern. The sun was barely breaking over the ocean.

"Alright, this cavern is full of monsters that can poison you. Be sure to beat them fast and hard if any attack you." Lavits warned as the trio walked through the cavern.

"Yea, I heard there were some rock fireflies in here though. Their healing light should be enough to help us, if we do get poisoned or injured. As long as we're not on death's door." Dart followed up.

"Rock... fireflies?" Shana questioned

"Located only around rocks or in caverns. When you clap loudly, or make a loud sound, their reaction is to light up. It heals themselves, but anything nearby get healed as well. It's mainly to defend themselves, but it helps us as well. It doesn't do anything for fatigue, blood loss, or hunger though. It'll only heal your wounds and remove abnormalities from you." Lavits explained.

The group came across a room full of stepping stones after Lavits had finished talking.

"This looks dangerous. Shana... try not to fall." Dart joked.

"Hmph. Speak for yourself Mr. Know-it-all." She retorted sticking her tongue out at him for emphasis.

"Okay children, that's enough." Lavits laughed.

"Child?" Dart questioned. "I'm probably older then you."

"25, I'm a year younger then King Albert."

"... Old man." At Lavits questioning look Dart elaborated. "Your 2 years older then I am, so your old."

Lavits took a playful swipe at his head. "Get moving before I push you in."

Dart took that as his cue to start jumping the stepping stones. As before he and Shana made it with no problems. Lavits once again slipped, which jogged Dart's memory of the last time it happened. This time however it was on the last stone and he fell forward onto the safer ground.

Dart smirked. "Walk much?"

Lavits laughed at that. "You know it. Aren't I great at it?"

Nothing more was said, but they continued to laugh as they passed through the next cave. 

"Oh, how pretty!" Shana cried as she noticed the rock fireflies. "Are those the rock fireflies?"

"Yea. Go ahead and clap."

She did so and was rewarded with a warm glow, that lit up the whole room. They continued on after that and the next room had some Orcs in it. Small goblin like creatures that were easily taken care of. They even encountered a poisonous slime creature before they came upon a large open room. A room Dart remembered as the place where Shana first revealed her Moon child powers.

They stopped at the same place as they did the first time Dart had gone through here.

"It's out for blood." Lavits mentioned as he took a defensive stance, feeling the blood lust of the creature. Shana knocked an arrow, and stood back ready to fire at a moments notice.

"Tut. Too bad it doesn't know what it's up against, eh?" Dart grinned.

Lavits chuckled and Shana rolled her eyes. Seconds later it slithered up, reared it's head back and struck at Lavits. Lavits dodged swiftly, and grazed it's head with a swing from his spear. Shana's arrow lodged itself in it's chin.

Dart took a strong swing at it's lower body. Shana started running back, to avoid getting hit with any attacks, and attack much more safely. Lavits took advantage of the cave wall he was next to and ran up it as far as he could before leaping. He landed on it's back as Dart was distracting it, and lodged his spear in it's scaly back.

Shana filled it's tongue with another arrow when it opened it's mouth to screech in pain at Lavits' attack. It swung it's tail, and nearly knocked Dart into the large pond nearby. Dart however managed to jump over the shot. It left him wide open for an attack from the big beastie itself though. Striking fast, Dart barely managed to use his feet and sword to defend himself, holding the large snake creature back with sheer strength alone. It was fairly even, and the snakes weight ended up being the deciding factor. Or it would have been had Lavits not slammed his spear into the side of it's head. Ripping it out, the snake toppled over to the side.

Shana came running up. She had launched a third arrow at it's head while Dart was struggling with it. It's what gave Lavits his idea to aim in a similar place with his spear.

"Oh no! Dart are you okay?" Shana worriedly called out as she came closer.

"I'm fine." Dart answered, as he stood up.

"More to the point, how did you even hold it off? That thing must weigh a ton, and you held it off easily." Lavits stated.

"Well, adrenaline I guess. I was losing though. I couldn't hold it much longer. Thanks for the save though." Dart told him. "Let's get going though. No point hanging around here."

As the group went to leave. Dart could feel the snake move. It's target was Shana. It struck before anyone could move.

Once again, just like last time, a light erupted from Shana. Unlike last time, probably due to knowing what it really was, Dart didn't feel the warm glow the Moon child in front of him gave off the first time. He felt it's chaos. The kind of aura he felt when they had fought Virage. _'That reminds me. What should I do about Shana? She's the Moon child. I'll decide later. Maybe I should have planned what I was going to do before I came back to this time. To late now, I guess.'_

Lavits' mouth was gaping.

Dart spoke. "Shana... what was that."

He of course knew, but for now, he had to keep up appearances. He still wasn't sure if he would, or even if he should, tell anyone his story.

"I don't know." She sounded scared.

"In-In any case. Let's get moving." Lavits suggested.

Nothing more was said on the matter. The rest of the trip out of the cavern was filled with walking, and killing random monsters, which seemed more abundant now that the largest predator amongst them had been killed. By the time the group reached the exit, they were dirty, grimy and their clothes had more blood of various monsters then their clothes had mass. In other words their clothing was dripping in blood.

It was also true that the sun was beginning it's decent. They would be lucky to make it to the checkpoint that would let them know they were closing in on Bale, by night fall.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

When the group of three finally arrived in Bale, Lavits had been completely prepared to go straight to the King. This time however, Dart talked him out of it.

"Lavits, think about this. Not only are we disgusting at the moment, but we're also exhausted. One night extra won't kill us. At the very least we can wash our clothing, and polish our armor, and get some real food in us. Also, it gives Shana and I a chance to give a better first impression then walking in there, coated in blood, and looking little better then bandits or pirates." Dart reasoned.

"Fine." Lavits conceded. "But first light we're meeting with the King."

The night at Lavits' house had been fairly eventful. Full of cleaning, polishing, and trading embarrassing stories with Lavits' mother, and of course eating.

"So Lavits, are you treating this young lady properly?" Lavits' mom asked.

"M-Mother it's not like that." Lavits insisted.

"Yea, Lavits' doesn't seem bold enough to make a move like that. Unless he's holding out on us." Dart grinned.

Lavits glared at him. "Says you. We all agree she's after you, but you refuse to see her that way."

Dart shrugged. "Not my fault."

Lavits' mother broke in. "Well, your all still young enough that you don't need to be looking for someone like that right away, a little longer wont hurt. Though Lavits, I would enjoy holding some grandchildren soon."

"Hey, Lavits, I think she's giving you a hint. Get a move on would ya?" Dart joked.

"Har-Har." Lavits stated dryly.

The rest of the conversation changed with Shana's question on what the recipe for this particular meal was called.

The following day, Lavits lead the two from his house to the castle. It wasn't a very long walk.

"Your Majesty, I have returned." Lavits bowed deeply. Dart and Shana followed suit.

"Lavits, I'm glad you have returned. And with guests. At ease." Albert told them casually.

"My Lord, all but two members of my knighthood were destroyed. Those two are currently leading some civilians over here through the safest route possible. We had been captured and were sent to Hellena. If it weren't for this young man here, Dart, we would surely have been executed." Lavits started on his report. "With his actions, he was able to free myself, my two most trusted Knights, and this young lady, Shana, who had been captured and imprisoned for some unknown reason. After escaping we made our way here."

"I see. Dart, was it? You rescued my most trusted Knight, and a dear friend, of mine. Thank you."

"It wasn't any problem."

"Dart," Lavits spoke up. "has been on a journey to hunt down and kill the Black Monster. Minister Noish, if you know anything about it, do you think you could tell Dart?"

"Uh, only specifically related to the Black Monster though please. Everything I've looked for lead me straight to the Dragon Campaign. I know nearly everything about that war now, other then details I'd have had to have been there to get." Dart rectified. Trying to save a lengthy explanation.

"I see. Well, unfortunately, all I know of the Black Monster is that it appeared after that war. Sorry."

A moment of silence ensued after that. Albert clearly didn't enjoy it.

"Well, Lavits I think we should discuss our next plan of action." Albert spoke up.

His Knight nodded and turned to walk up the stairs to his left. Dart got his attention first.

"Hey, Lavits? While you do that, I'm gonna check out around town. See if I can't find a stronger blade." Dart announced as he turned to leave. "Meet back up at you mum's place. You can tell me where we're headed then."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Shana had followed Dart for the most part, before stating she was gonna go and see if she could help Lavits' mom with dinner. Dart didn't object. He simply continued to browse through several weapon shops, most carried spears and lances only.

Upon entering his 3rd shop, the shop keeper greeted him cheerfully. "Greetings young master, what can I do for you?"

"Eh, I'm looking for a better sword. This one here is a little beat up." Dart told him drawing and placing it on the counter. "5 years was probably a little too long to go without replacing it."

"Hm. 5 years you say? Of regular use." the shopkeeper asked, receiving a nod. "Well, it's in better condition then most would be, but it wont last too much longer. Another month or two at most, if you run into only monsters. Any human fighters and it's likely to shatter. Your armor however is in excellent condition. Do you parry or counter a lot of attacks?"

"Ah, no I dodge most of them. I think I've only been hit a few times in before last month. Just this month I've received some rather brutal attacks, but my armor is rather thick and strong, despite it's look." Dart answered.

"Well, it's in good condition. Your sword however... I'll give you 20 gold for it. I can get it melted down and remade. Do you have any idea what type of weapon your looking for? I have a strong bastard sword here if your interested. It is a little big."

"That sounds fair enough, but as to the sword, well, I was searching for something a little more unique." Dart told him, emphasizing it with his arms. "I was thinking duel blade wielding. It's not exactly common, but I'm good with both hands anyways, so I thought I'd surprise people."

"Hm... well, I have two swords of the same kind, but they're not exactly meant for something like that. They'll probably do well enough for a while. At least until you can get swords more suited to that style. They'll be, together, 120 gold. Just give me a hundred and I'll take the twenty that your sword would be worth."

"Thanks."

With everything done, Dart walked out with two decent weapons. They were a little thicker then he wanted, but they would do for now. Besides, being as muscular as he is, Dart figured, they would probably be fine for him anyways.

The walk back to Lavits' place was mostly uneventful. It was dark, and someone tried to rob him, but he got a face full of fist, and simply dropped like a sack of potatoes. Other then that he was left undisturbed.

"Lavits, Shana, Mrs. Slambert! I'm back." Dart called as he entered the house.

"Ah Dart, dinner is almost ready." Lavits told him. "We're leaving tomorrow. For Hoax. We'll stop at a small village a long the way for the night, and make the rest of the trek the next day."

"I take it we're taking horses then?"

A nod.

"It's been a while since I've been on one." Dart confessed. Inside he was thinking. '_I'll be seeing Rose and Kongol soon. What do I do. Kongol only joined cause I beat him twice, although Rose dealt the finishing blow the second time. It'll probably be the same. But Rose... hopefully she hasn't heard anything that might make her hesitate. Kongol will kill me if she does. I'm placing all my trust in her on this, and unfortunately, she doesn't know me personally this time. No. I trust she'll save me again. It's Rose... and she's the Black Monster... maybe I am trusting her too much but what else can I do.? Damn. It should have been Rose who was sent back to this point in time. She'd know what to do.'_

"Dart!" Lavits and Shana exclaimed as one.

"Huh?" Dart asked startled. "What?"

"You were thinking deeply. What about?" Shana asked.

"Don't worry about it." Dart told her simply.

Lavits frowned. "Still, I've noticed you've done that a few times. Just know we're both here if you need to talk."

"You think I'm depressed?" Dart laughed.

"Well, no. It's just you seem to have something rather heavy on your mind to desert us mentally like that." Lavits told him, before grinning. "Of course, it might just be a result of your mind overworking itself. I know how you blonds can be."

Dart growled. "Watch it. Your King is blond to. So is the entire Royal Family of Tiberoa, and two of the Sacred Sisters of Millie Seseau."

"Bah, what they can't hear can't hurt them." Lavits waved it off with a smile on his face, clearly joking around.

"No, but what I hear might hurt you." Dart told him before grabbing him in a headlock. "Besides your also blond."

"I'm an exception!" Lavits cried as he struggled.

The rest of the night was spent having a good time, as part of the last bit of relaxation they would be getting for a while. Dart particularly enjoyed it. Lavits had died too soon, after Dart and he had met after all, and they never had any chance to really relax without something to worry about. Even the original time they had spent in Bale, they had taken time going over battle plans. This time, Dart told him to explain on the way to Hoax so they could relax while in Bale.

All they had to do was survive the battle of Hoax and Dart was sure the rest would be much easier. He would be a dragoon then after all, and he knew his way on the battle field as one of those better then he knew the back of his own hand.

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A/N: So this is the next chapter. Not sure how well you'll enjoy it. I changed Dart's weapons, and I don't know how many of you will like that.

Still not that many changes, but they'll be coming along shortly.

I hope you can all hold out until then.


	3. Chapter 3

Ah here's the third chapter. I'm thinking of changing the title but that's a different matter altogether. What do you all think though... should I change the title? And if so to what?

Before I begin however, I'd like to let y'all know, that I've headed back and re-edited my previous chapters to remove a few mistakes I noticed. I actually called Lavits' house Seles last chapter. How come no one noticed? Or if you did, how come you didn't tell me? That was a rather bad mistake I made.

Anyways, here's this chapter. The third one. Just in case y'all can't count you know.

**Chapter 3**

The trip to Hoax had been a boring one. The horses had been tired from being pushed. That had been a few days ago. Tonight however was going to be very different. Dart had been sure he saw a figure that looked like Rose hiding out in the forest a little earlier today. She had moved before he could confirm it, which in of itself confirmed his suspicion.

"Hey Dart? Get us a bite to eat will ya." Lavits called out. They had been on guard duty every night this week. The following week would have switched it up, but Dart knew it wouldn't happen.

"Yea. Sure. I'm pretty sure Shana will fall asleep unless we make her do something." Dart commented. He had heard Lavits get smacked with a pan of some sort the previous night when he had gone to get some food during the early morning.

As Dart walked to the inn where Shana was located he pondered the last few days.

He had been training mostly. Using two blades had it's advantages over a single style, but Dart was pretty happy with the change. He felt more at ease. There were certainly some unique styles, according to Kaiser, the man in charge at Hoax. He had apparently fought someone who used two blades once, and he had required the help of his other Knights to actually beat him.

Dart had simply developed a style that relied on his surprising flexibility, and some weird maneuvers. With his weird movements and quick flexibility, Dart was able to switch between complete offense, a mix of offense and defense, and defensive maneuvers that relied on countering and parrying to deal damage. A quick spar with Lavits showed it was very effective, even if Dart still wasn't completely used to the style just yet. He was however comfortable enough with it to use it in real combat.

Just as Dart reached the last set of stairs to the ground, he noticed everything had gone silent.

"It's happening. LAVITS! We're under attack!" Dart roared. This got everyone up and ready for battle. Just in time as the attackers breached their defenses.

A Sandora soldier attacked Dart head on, only to meet him face to face with his weapon knocked to the side and a sword in his gut.

Lavits dropped from the top landing with his spear inside another soldier who was attacking Dart from behind. "Dart, I got your back."

"Thanks man."

The two killed another 5 soldiers before they heard a cry from above them. One of their own Serdian Knights was thrown from the top of the fortress.

"A Sandora elite? Dart we have to take care of him quickly." Lavits stated.

"Got ya." Dart nodded.

Rushing forward, Dart killed another two soldiers before he raced up the stairs knocking another soldier over the railing. Lavits wasn't far behind him, but was moving a little slower to deal with any pursuers.

Soon enough the duo met the elite Sandora soldier.

"Hmph. Your better then the other weaklings, but I'll still send you to hell." the elite growled.

"Yea? Try it." Dart taunted.

Lavits smirked. "Your alone up here. We have the upper hand."

"Am I?" the elite smirked, not that they could see it. Though they could hear it in his voice that he was smirking.

Dart attacked before he could do anything however, instantly putting him on the defensive. Getting himself behind the elite, Dart forced him to back towards Lavits.

Lavits seeing the obvious opening, attacked, attempting to stab him in the back.

The elite was able to see the plan however and rolled to the side landing on a house below. Dart and Lavits followed and knocked him to the ground below. Getting up faster then any of them, Lavits flung his lance forward and impaled the elites left arm to the ground.

Dart, acting quickly so he couldn't remove it and attack again, threw one of his swords like a large knife and watched as the sword sunk into his neck killing him.

Retrieving their weapons, the sound of Kongol barreling through soldiers and flinging them aside like ants reached Darts' ears.

"The hell?" Lavits cursed. "They send everything they have here or something?"

"No Lavits. That thundering is coming from one person. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say a Giganto." Dart commented.

Seeing a soldier flying towards them, they rushed forwards, past the airborne soldier, and to where Dart knew Kongol was standing.

"I knew it was a Giganto." Dart told Lavits, as he looked at his largest friend. Even if currently Kongol was his enemy.

"Better then fighting a Dragon. Let's get him." Lavits cried as he swung his lance over head, twirling it.

"Right."

"Puny humans not beat Kongol!" Kongol roared as he swung his giant axe. An axe that Lavits and Dart together would be hard pressed to lift. And Kongol swung it with one hand.

Kongol stepped forward bringing his axe down on Dart, who quickly rolled out of the way. Lavits stabbed forward hoping to end it quickly, but Kongol showed why, despite his size, he was considered Sandora's best fighter, next to Greham and Doel.

Grabbing the lance with his free hand, Kongol stopped Lavits' attack, and swung releasing the lance. This sent Lavits into a wall, breaking through it, and into the house on the other side of it. Dart however swung at Kongol's arm hoping to make him drop the axe, and beat him into submission.

Once again Kongol proved his worth dropping to the ground to completely avoid the attack and kicking out with his leg. Dart blocked somewhat with his second blade, but was still launch backwards. As Dart landed, Lavits came out of the rubble and, after shaking his head clear, charged at Kongol, dodging Kongol's next attack and, using his spear as leverage, launched his own legs into Kongol's stomach.

Grunting at the impact, Kongol grabbed one of Lavits' legs and swung him into a recovering Dart, knocking them both into the ground.

Both recovering as fast as they could, they tried a pincer tactic. Dart managed to get a cut on Kongol's side with this tactic, but was ultimately sent sailing once again, while Lavits was launched straight into the air, and then smashed in the face by Kongol's strong fist.

He landed a few feet from Dart.

"Hmph. Kongol need no weapon to defeat you!" Kongol boldly exclaimed, slamming his axe into the ground.

Charging at the two, Kongol close lined both of them and then turned around to grab their heads. Lavits was sent crashing into the ground, while Dart swung his weapon upwards forcing Kongol to release them. Keeping up a few more attacks, Dart gave Kongol a long but shallow gash across the chest. To which Kongol responded by punching Dart in the head. Dropping one of his swords, Dart reached up to hold his head. A rather stupid mistake as Kongol kicked forward sending Dart just behind Kongol's large axe. Where he let his other sword go to hold his stomach. As Kongol walked forward Lavits barely getting to his knees to watch the scene, Dart finally caught his breath as the pain died down a little.

Kongol stood over him now, with his axe in hand. He raised it up to swing it.

'_Soon. Come on Rose, I'm trusting you here._' Dart thought as he prepared to move, unsure if he could.

The axe came down, and Dart tried to move. Rolling just enough, the axe took the back of his armor and ripped it wide open, leaving a millimeter between Kongol's axe and Dart's back on it's way through.

It was then, when Kongol raised his axe again, when Kongol himself was forced to defend. Blocking a strong powerful strike of a rapier, Kongol growled as he felt his arm nearly buckle under the force of the strike. Rose had come just in time to save Dart from a secondary strike, one that would kill him.

"Who are you? You interfered. Kongol kill you." Kongol growled as he readied himself.

Rose ignored him."Wake up dragoon spirit, of the red eye dragon!"

Lavits frowned. "What?"

Once again Dart exploded with power. Dart guessed because he wasn't meant to use the Red eyed spirit, that it was only working for him because it knew it should if it were to get to it's rightful owner. Or perhaps it was because with Rose calling it, it noticed the blood of Zieg in Dart, even if it was mixed with Claire's blood, and was reacting to that. Dart really didn't know why it was working for him, but he didn't really care. He had placed it into his amulet and stuffed it under his shirt to hide it away the first chance he had. Because of that he could feel it's warmth against his skin. As the power ran through him.

As the power finally became manageable, Dart could feel his wings moving again, and the sudden heat becoming nothing more then a warm feeling on a chilly winter day.

Kongol however was getting to his feet as the power died down. He was injured, weaponless, and outnumbered. He did the best thing he could have, however much he hated the idea. "Kongol will kill you. Kongol just need to heal, then kill you."

Turning and grabbing an injured Sandora soldier and throwing him on his shoulder Kongol ran off. He was a good leader, even in a dangerous situation he thought of comrades as well as himself. Not many people, who, themselves being in danger, would take time to save a fellow soldier.

After it was clear the they had won, Lavits turned to Dart in time to see a black armored winged person land next to him. In a burst of black light it was revealed to be a girl in dark blue armor. She wore her dark brown hair straight and had a circlet on that gave her the appearance of having little horns.

"What the hell is going on?"

Dart didn't answer. Instead Shana's voice interrupted before he could. "Oh my god. Dart! What happened to you?"

"I'm fine. Don't worry." As Dart released the power, he transformed back to normal following a fire that covered him. Upon returning to normal, his armor fell off. "Shit. I'll need to get some new armor now."

"That's nice, but what happened." Lavits growled.

"I'll explain." Rose told him. "My name is Rose, and I'm a Dragon Knight, a Dragoon. I felt Dart had a spirit on him that acknowledged him enough to allow him to use it, but it wasn't sure if he was ready. I simply activated it with a minor Dragoon spell that is designed by Dragoons to awaken other Dragoons. I've been following him since I met him, and deemed him worthy enough to use it, and in danger enough to need it."

"And your a Dragoon as well? The Darkness Dragoon a take it?" Dart answered.

"Yes. I find your knowledge on the dragon campaign interesting at best. You know so much for a simple traveler. Too much. The amount you know, you should have known exactly what that stone was." Rose answered.

"Doesn't mean I was able to use it." Dart countered swiftly. '_Shit. I did reveal too much knowledge._'

"It doesn't matter. People might suspect me of knowing too much as well. I guess we're both just very curious people." Rose answered.

"I guess. I guess this is the second time though. Just before Seles. And just now." Dart mentioned. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you were stalking me."

Rose glared at him. "Don't be stupid."

"I'm joking." Dart told her, before walking towards her a little bit, and bowing. "Thank you Rose. You've saved my life twice now. I owe it to you. Just ask, and I'll help you however I can."

"Like I said last time. Don't worry about it. Last time I was just there, and this time I was seeing if you had what it takes to be a Dragoon." Rose answered. "You should get some sleep though. The first time you use the Dragoon your usually pretty tired."

"Yea I guess so. Are you gonna stay here?" Dart asked her.

"Yea. You guys are interesting, and I'm bored." she shrugged. "Besides, your gonna need some training in using the spirit, so I should probably help out."

"Good." Dart left it as that as he went to go to sleep. Rose had been right. His mind was fine, as it was used to the power, but his body couldn't take it for very long.

Shana couldn't help but glare at Rose. Only two meetings, and Dart looked at her with so much respect and admiration. Shana couldn't help but be jealous. 

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

The following morning had the entire fortress up to witness something. Lavits walked out of the inn just in time to see a fireball land on the concrete. Right where he was sure he saw Rose standing a second before that. Looking into the sky, he saw Dart and Rose darting around the sky just above Hoax attacking eachother with balls of fire and darkness and sword slashes.

Shana came out behind him in time to see Dart crash into the ground, and Rose land in front of him. Both had reverted back to their human forms. Dart wearing a black shirt and black jeans. He had yet to replace his armor. He'd have to do that in a better stocked location as Hoax had no spare supplies. Not anymore at any rate.

"Dart!" Shana cried. She ran forwards to see if she could be any help. Lavits followed sensing the danger was over.

Rose helped Dart to his feet. "You fought much better then I thought you would. You have a natural talent towards this kind of fighting I suspect. There isn't much I can teach you."

Nodding his thanks Dart remembered the armor Lloyd had worn in the battle. It looked like Dragoon armor, but he didn't have the wings or gems. "Hey Rose?"

"Yes?"

"Is there any way that I could... maybe use half of the Dragoon armor? Like only using the armor itself, but not the wings or magic?" Dart questioned. It was a long shot, because Lloyd might have simply had that armor and never worn it.

"I honestly have no idea. It might be possible, but you'd probably have to be skilled with magic to begin with. As far as I'm aware however, humans can't use magic except in the very rare cases. We might be able to cause of our spirits, but I've never tried it." Rose explained after some serious thought. "Actually we might want to try that ourselves. If we can we can probably triple our effectiveness. Wearing our armor and magic in our human forms would severely overpower us compared to most people, and monsters."

"How would we start?" Dart asked, now very curious.

"Start what?" Lavits asked as he walked up. Shana had been standing behind him for a short while.

"Utilizing magic in our human forms." Dart answered distracted.

"Try and replicate the way it feels when we're in our Dragoon forms. At least that's our best bet."

"Why would you want to do that?" Lavits frowned.

Rose answered. "Because it could make us harder to beat as humans, meaning in situations that might normally require our dragoons we wouldn't need them, and we could save the dragoon forms for battles where we have absolutely no other choice."

Shana, despite her jealousy at Rose actually thought it sounded like a good idea. "It sounds fun. Does that mean we wouldn't need doctors or rock fireflies to heal us?"

"Depends." Dart shrugged. "If we can mold the magic how we want then yes. If it comes out based on our element, then not in a million years, with two destructive elements."

"Fire and darkness right?" Lavits asked. Two nods were received. "Imagine how beautiful the site of darkness and fire melding together in a wave of power would be. Beautiful, but probably incredibly destructive to the point of changing the landscape."

"You'd make quite an artist Lavits." Dart commented after he visualized it.

"Well, it's sort of a minor hobby. A young girl back home has been teaching me in the spare time I have to visit her." Lavits confessed. "I have plenty of ideas I want to paint, but I can't do them with so little time. It's one of many reasons I want to end this war."

"We have to end this war." Dart commented.

"Yes. Your the only ones who can unfortunately." Kaiser's voice interrupted. "Because your not soldiers Dart, Rose, I can't order you out there. But I have to ask, can you both please fight alongside of us. There isn't any way any of us can beat the dragon, only you two have that power."

"We know." Dart and Rose answered at the same time. Dart continued. "I was going to help anyways. Rose said she'd come too, but whether she'll fight or not is up to her."

"Of course I'll fight. It's no fun if I let you have all the fun." Rose spoke for herself.

"Then it's settled." Lavits stated.

"Great." Kaiser grinned. "I'd go as well, but I keep in charge of the survivors here. I'll send a report to the King."

"Well, we better get moving." Dart sighed as he left the fortress town. "We'll cut across the marshlands and pass over Volcano Villude. The border gates to the west are probably blocked off."

"Good luck." Kaiser saluted the four as they walked down the path leading from Hoax.

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As the group of four traveled through the marsh Lavits stopped them at a certain point.

"Guys... I can hear sounds of battle."

"And? I heard it too." Rose stated. "Let's keep moving."

"No. There is a fortress in here. That means Sandora has attacked from this direction." Lavits told her.

"That means, if they win, they might retreat backwards to avoid detection." Dart concluded.

"Wait... wouldn't that mean they'd run into us?" Shana asked worriedly.

"It's exactly what it means." Rose told her. "We'll have to kill them to avoid being stuck between a potential dragon, and an army. And if the Sandora's have a dragon, they probably have their own Dragoon. We wouldn't stand a chance if we ran into them as the retreating army runs into us."

"Well, let's go take care of things. Shana stay hidden and pick people off from a distance." Dart told her as the group ran towards the marshlands fortress. "Rose, Lavits we just simply have to rush in there and help the Knighthood."

With the plan set, the fortress was coming into site, Shana broke off from the group to go hide in a tree to plant arrows inside heads.

Entering the battle, Lavits performed his usual start-of-battle-maneuver, and launched his Spear into a Sandora soldier. As Dart and Rose ran past the downed soldier, Lavits pulled it out of his enemy and flung himself at the nearest enemy with a war cry.

"Lavits sounds pretty pumped for this." Dart commented as he dodged a spear strike and planted a sword in a chest while his other sword held off a Sandora soldiers attempt to hack him down.

Killing the soldier Dart had blocked the sword strike of, Rose backhanded another. "I guess he thinks there is honor in a wasted death."

"Nah, I think he feels he has something to prove. Either that he likes it when Shana's hands are on his body to fix him up." Dart commented, as he lopped someone's head off. He wasn't sure if it was an allies or not and simply rushed the nearest Sandoran soldier to make up for it if it had been an ally.

"You like to talk during battle don't you?" Rose noticed. As a soldier she was about to cut down suddenly had an arrow in his head. His fall revealed he was hiding another soldier behind him who was cut down in his stead.

"Not really. I couldn't care less either way. It's just I couldn't really say something like that in front of the two of them. Not without Shana getting mopey and Lavits saying something stupid anyways." Dart explained, as he kicked another soldier in the nuts before knocking him into the water. He had to put more emphasis on avoiding attacks without his armor. Luckily he was good at that. Getting in close was one of the key ways to avoid an enemy if they had a weapon. It's hard to swing a weapon when your enemy is close enough to kiss you.

Besides he always had his Dragoon form to rely on if it came down to it now.

The battle didn't last too much longer. The commander of the Sandora's had come out of the fortress and attacked. Unfortunately for him Lavits was becoming a very good shot with his lance throwing. The poor guy didn't even know there was more then two assailants.

"Awesome shot Lavits. I didn't see him at first." Dart told his friend. Rose had been in the same boat, but she of course wasn't going to admit that.

"Thanks." Lavits said as he pulled his spear out of the commander, only to have it snap. "Shit. I hope this place has a good strong spear in it."

"Go on. Call us if you need us, but we'll wait for Shana to get over here." Dart told him.

When Shana showed up Lavits was just getting out. "Well, there was lots of dead bodies, poison however. No injuries. I found this though. It belonged to the leader of the seventh Knighthood. He's been in service for a very long time, and his weapon is rarely used now. But it's strong. Made of a metal called titanium all the way through, and covered in a think layer of gold to give it a more decorative look."

"Nice. As long as you can use it, take it. We can't afford to slow ourselves down with unneeded baggage." Dart commented.

"I know, that's why I looked for this. It's strong, and nice to look at." Lavits told him.

"Right, lets get going. We've lost some ground I expected to cover today because of this." Dart told them.

Continuing their trek through the marshes they eventually found themselves on more solid footing. The soft moist ground beginning to harden. The further the went the harder it went until they could hear their feet clicking on the ground, indicating they had reached rock, which meant they were on the mountain. The progressively steeping climb helped to solidify that fact. A day later, the group found themselves approaching Volcano Villude.

Throughout the trek Rose had been silent, and trying to bring out magic while in her human form. Dart tried occasionally, but without success.

"So... this is the infamous Volcano Villude?" Lavits muttered to himself.

"If it isn't, I don't want to see it. It's way too hot." Shana complained jokingly.

Dart shrugged swinging his arms behind his head. "I like it."

"I got it!" Rose uncharacteristically cried happily.

"Rose is smiling? Quick run for the hills." Dart joked receiving a cold glare from the woman in turn. "Sorry. What did you get?"

"I managed to make magic work in my human form. Watch." Rose told him. She took several seconds before pointing a hand at the ground. A dark ball of energy appeared in her hand and launched to the ground, making a minor crater. "You just have to focus as if your summoning the power of your dragoon, but don't look to your Dragoon for the power. Reach for your own power. You'll feel a slight connection commence to the spirit, or something like it, and you'll summon magic forth instead."

Testing it out for himself, it took Dart a few tries before he got it successfully. Unlike Rose, his was a ball of fire. It reminded him of the magic the Winglies used. "It's tiring."

"We're human." Rose pointed out guessing where he was going with it.

"We're dead if we don't run." Lavits yelled as he bolted past them.

"What?" Dart frowned.

Looking up Rose followed Lavits. "Hurry Dart we shouldn't fight it unless we have to."

Shana ran past him next. "Don't just wait for it stupid."

Turning Dart noticed what had them moving so quickly. Unlike the rest, he didn't notice the heat, but the Firebird was closing in on their location. "Oh bugger."

Chasing after his friends, Dart caught up to them in no time flat, and had passed them in little more then that.

After slipping through a tight squeeze however the whole group felt they were safe.

"There is no way it can fit through that hole." Shana breathed heavily.

"Don't count on it." Rose muttered. "I've seen some strange things before, and that wouldn't even measure on the scale."

"Well, I don't see any lava in here. So I doubt that thing has any way in." Dart commented. "We should rest here, and get through this place tomorrow."

Setting up the few blankets they carried, the group ate quietly, and drank only a little water to preserve what they had left for the next morning. They were certain it would evaporate once they came close to the magma. Lying down, they prepared for what the next day would throw at them.

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A/N: So tell me what you all think.

I hope you enjoyed it. I had a good deal of fun writing it. Still not as many changes as I'd like, but that will fix itself the longer the story gets.

Anyways, feel free to give your own input. Also, if anyone can think of a better title name, feel free to let me know. It's up to me to decide if I like it or not, but I think it's current name is rather lame. If you all think it's fine the way it is though, I'll leave it the way it is.


	4. Chapter 4

So, it's been quite a long time huh? Sorry about that, lots of homework, and some group projects I had to do, which meant no breaks in between to work on my stories. College is difficult and that's all I have to say. Coupled with that, I have been dealing with a lot other then college work as well, such as my grandfathers death, my uncle and other grandfathers illnesses. Also I have recently bought a laptop, and it's been taking some getting used to. I've been finding it difficult to write on the laptop compared to my home computer. But my laptop is only about a couple dozen times faster then my home computer so I've been using my laptop for everything.

Anyways, my rant to you is done, and now you receive the next chapter of this terribly titled story. Really, if anyone can think of a better title, please tell me! I'll even give you credit next chapter update.

**Chapter 4**

Volcano Villude was huge. And it wasn't just one volcano as the name suggested. It was many. Most of the actual volcanoes were inactive though, but as Lavits had been explaining to Shana, the few that still were active were the ones along the beaten path.

Dart however was working on using the magic fire he was able to create now, which is why Shana was talking with Lavits instead of trying to talk to Dart. Rose was doing the same with her darkness magic. As one might expect Dart was doing far less well then Rose. Where as Dart had been having some blow up on him, or disappearing, Rose was able to form two, on in each hand, and keep them stable for more then a few minutes. Her goal was a hour.

When Lavits had asked, Rose explained that she had met some winglies before, and that had explained that they practised like that themselves, if they had problems controlling their magic.

As the group wandered through the final volcano cave system Dart started to wonder about something.

"Hey, um how come there hasn't been any monsters around?" The group stopped to stare at him. "Well, there was a lot of them yesterday, but as we get closer to the exit, the less they're appearing. Now there isn't any and there hasn't been for more then an hour."

"Don't think to much on it Dart." Lavits spoke up. "Monsters are living and breathing creatures to, I'm sure word has spread from them to others that, we're not worth attempting to eat, or kill."

"Dart is right Lavits." Rose spoke up. "This isn't normal. And I've been so busy getting used to using magic without my Dragoon power, I didn't notice it."

"So? Isn't it a good thing?" Shana wondered.

"I get it." Lavits answered. "Since they don't fear humans normally, and they're not intelligent enough to communicate, or at least strategist, something the know they can't take must be scaring them off."

"Exactly." Rose stated. "Now it's just a matter of finding out what it is and killing it, before it kills us."

"Can't we just avoid it?" Shana pressed.

"Doubt it. We'll probably end up being forced to fight." Dart told her, the memory of the Virage coming back to him.

"Well, there isn't anything we can do now, so lets just keep going." Lavits sighed as he continued walking. The others nodded and followed.

The next open area they entered had only large stone platforms they could jump on. Everything else was magma. Shana whimpered slightly, and Rose grunted in an annoyed tone. Lavits sighed and ran his hands through his hair, spiking it unintentionally with his sweat.

Dart simply whistled. "Looks fun."

Jumping across each platform wasn't difficult, but if anyone slipped they were gone. There would be nothing that could be done for them.

Nearing the last few platforms Shana stopped, sort of, and ran off in another direction, saying something about a voice.

"You know, usually, when someone hears voices, it means they're crazy." Rose stated.

For once Rose had been ignored. Usually someone responded to her, but not this time. Lavits followed Shana immediately, and Dart simply grinned at her before following.

Rose looked at their running forms. "There is something really off about that girl. I don't know what though. Whatever, it's probably nothing." With that she followed after Dart and the others.

Dart couldn't help but pull his weapons out. He knew what it was, and despite his trying he whispered it along with Rose, who had stopped just next to him. "Virage."

He didn't notice Rose's eyes turn to him and narrow.

Lavits had picked Shana off the ground his arms keeping her steady. "We should go Shana, this is a dead end."

"Yea. Sorry, but I heard a voice calling to me." She told him.

Rose's eyes narrowed. That wasn't a good thing.

Thoughts distracted she forgot about where her mind was going as the Virage awoke. "Shit! We have to kill it. Now. Some of these things are rumoured to regenerate when they're awake."

Lavits started first pole vaulting himself into a flying kick at it's face. He hit and used the impact to launch himself into a back flip away from the monster. Dart ran up seconds after, slashing the green abdomen like area of it, cutting it wide. It oozed a purple life liquid.

Shana for some reason refused to fight. She was muttering something about everyone getting hurt. Rose ignored her however, and made Darts attack deeper as Lavits kept it's only arm at bay with his spear. Dart jumped up onto the creature, realizing that with its arm kept busy, it couldn't fight back. He simply planted both his sword into it's face before leaping back off of the half-bodied Virage.

"That was surprisingly easy." Dart commented after the Lava had stopped twisting and moving.

"It wouldn't have been if it had been a full bodied Virage." Rose commented.

"I don't doubt it." Dart commented remembering the many Virages he had killed just fighting Melbu Frahma. The other two he fought were powerful as well.

Shana made sure to check if everyone was alright, which they were, and apologized for not helping. Apparently she was afraid that in her fear, she might hit one of them. That and she wasn't sure they could win at all, and was more or less debating whether or not to run.

Leaving, the group of four eventually came upon a man who was barely hanging on to a ledge. Apparently he had nearly fallen.

"Oh no!" Shana shouted. "We have to help him!"

"Yea yea." Dart muttered.

Lavits walked ahead of him. "An arm each Dart?"

"Sure."

After pulling the man up, he introduced himself.

"I am Dabas. I'm a merchant. Thank you so much for saving me. I came here looking for a specific item, but I guess it's not here." Dabas told them. "Anyways, I have a shop in Lohan, so come by and buy something won't you? I can't give you anything you want for free, but I can certainly sell it to you for cheap."

"Really? Thanks." Dart said gratefully. Last time he had simply given Shana an earring with some minor magical properties, but this time he was promising discounts on any goods in his shop.

"No need to thank me, you saved my life. I have plenty of goods I'm sure you'll be interested in back at my shop, jewelry with magic imbued into them, armour, weapons, healing medicines and anti-toxins. I carry pretty much anything. I can even help you find any mythical or legendary items. I have notes on just about all of them, but I'm not completely sure where they are."

Rose spoke up. "That could be useful. We might contact you in the future about those notes."

"Just remember, legendary and mythical stuff isn't always real, so if the notes I have on it don't help, it's probably because it doesn't exist." Dabas told her. "If you'll excuse me I've gotta run."

They watched Dabas run for a few seconds before following. Dart was secretly glad now that he thought about it. If Dabas had walked with them to Lohan, he might have been killed by the dragon, and then Shana would have died.

'_Then again,_' Dart thought to himself, '_would that have really been so bad. Without Shana none of this would have happened. No. It still would have, but Rose would end up fighting alongside others instead of us. Or perhaps even alone. No this is for the best, risking the future like that is not worth it. Besides, Shana's my childhood friend, how can I even think her death is a good thing._'

"Dart." Rose muttered.

"Yea?"

"Get ready. Something is coming." Rose told him.

"I know. It's Firebird isn't it?" Dart asked, though he already knew the answer.

"It's going to be dangerous. It's made of magma, and fire, and can assume either of the two for it's shape." Rose told him. The other two were listening in.

"How do we fight something like that?" Shana asked.

"A better question, how do you know it's coming?" Lavits interrupted whatever response was being made for Shana.

"Did you really think that the Firebird was going to just let us go? It's notorious for never letting anyone escape. Running back would have done nothing, as we'd have no cover, running forward allows him to trap us. However, running forward also means he can't get manoeuvre as easily, and will be forced to use his fire form, instead of his magma form."

"Oh."

Dart interrupted the silence that followed. "It's here."

Sure enough fire blocked their exit, and retreat, and the Firebird appeared out of the small pool of lava below them.

"Physical attacks still work right? We don't need magical items will we?" Lavits shouted as he prepared to attack.

Dart was halfway to the bird, when he called back to him. "Yep!"

Shana stood back up against the wall firing arrows. Some burned up before they reached, but most hit it.

Catching up to Dart easily, Rose stabbed forward before slashing three times, and ending with a long deep horizontal slash.

Dart had jumped over when she got in front of him. His assault with his two weapons were just painful as the ancient female warriors. To complete the large combo Lavits was right behind them when they both veered off into different directions to start attacking anew.

Despite the assault made by four people, Firebird still was very powerful. After shaking off the pain, the bird flew as high as it could in the small cavern, and nose dived into their standing spot. It was quickly melting and turning into magma itself. As Firebird rose from the original pool of magma. Coming with it were ghost like balls of fire.

Each one was dealt with swiftly, but it gave Firebird time enough to send the three close quarter warriors to the ground. Luckily none of them were burned yet, though Rose's hair had been singed.

"Damn." Dart growled, as he stood next to Lavits

"It's too strong. Dart, you and Rose should transform." Lavits cried, as he struggled to his feet.

"He's right, Dart." Rose called out to them, she was standing in front of Shana now. "Shana's arrows burn up too quickly as well, so we're short one fighter at that."

"Right then, lets take care of this quickly." Dart agreed. Immediately fire surrounded Dart, distracting the Firebird. The fire eventually left his body, leaving behind the dragoon armour, and went to his back forming flaming wings. Soon the fire left entirely and Dart was left with the dragoon wings.

Rose, at the same time as Dart, had been engulfed in a dark ball of energy. When it shrunk down as if to implode it instead flew off in waves of energy, as Rose appeared in her Dragoon form, slashing away the dark energy build up that had transformed her.

The two nearly vanished from sight, and it was only respective black and red streaks of light that allowed anyone to know where they were.

Needless to say, the Firebird could not keep up. It only took several times of each streak of light passing through the Firebird, before it fell to the ground, it's fire diminishing.

"So powerful." Lavits whispered. He had backed up next to Shana when the two had transformed.

Shana too was in awe. Watching what looked to her like a dance in the air, she was left with her mouth gaping.

When the two dragoons landed Shana was the first to comment. "You two looked so beautiful up there."

"That's the first I've ever heard of people killing something, being called beautiful." Dart commented.

Rose however thanked her for the compliment, surprised that she had given them a compliment.

"You two said that if Doel has a dragon under his control, it's likely he has a dragoon as well, right?" Lavits commented.

"Yes. Why?" Rose asked.

"Well, it's just, if he has a dragon and a dragoon under his control, what are our chances of winning?"

"Not very high. I'm pretty sure I can take the dragoon, but the dragon will be a challenge. Either way, it'll probably take both Dart and myself, to take on one of them. I've had plenty of time to master the usage of my own dragoon form, but even a master can lose when they're in the wrong environment." Rose explained. "We should probably leave now though. I really want to get out of this heat."

Allowing their forms to vanish, the two dragon knights led the way out.

"So, if say, Shana and I held off the dragon for as long as we could, would that be enough time for you two to take out the dragoon?" Lavits asked as they walked.

"It might be. Depends on how strong the dragon and dragoon are. Feyrbrand isn't supposed to be very powerful though. I've heard it relies on poisons and other ailments to win, and since dragoons are immune to everything except physical and magical damage, and death itself, Dart and I will be fine fighting it. You two should be careful though."

"So does that mean it's a good plan?" Shana asked, confused.

"Yes. But it's really the only plan we have so we'll have to go with it." Dart explained.

Soon enough the group of four were walking down the mountainside, into the forest below. They could see Lohan far in the distance, and the Sun setting in the horizon.

"We should stop for camp when we reach the bottom." Lavits suggested.

"Sounds good." Dart agreed.

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A/N: It's pretty short unfortunately, but it wasn't going as well as previous chapters. But what do you all think anyways? I'm not so sure on my fight scenes, they seem to be lacking in my opinion. Anyways, I'll be going back and rereading, and editing my previous chapters, to clean up some mistakes I've made.

I hope you all enjoyed this.


	5. Chapter 5

Been a while hasn't it? Sorry about that, but other stuff, ya know?

Anyways, I won't bore you with the details, let's just get on to why your here.

**Chapter 5**

'_This is just like I remember it. Monsters every where, with little time to rest._' Dart thought as he swung his sword through another monster, wincing as it glowed a yellow while it slashed down with it's claws.

It had a physical attack barrier up. Luckily it was already attacking which forced it's barrier to be dropped. Parrying the claws quickly, Dart got behind the monster before one of his swords was planted inside it.

Looking to his left he saw Lavits impale 2 more monsters and an arrow lodge itself in another head. Rose was surrounded by dead monsters, easily taking on several on her own with ease.

"Well, hopefully that's the last of them for a little while." Lavits said as Shana finished off the last one. "But why are they so agitated?"

"The dragon's poison." Rose told him. "It affects the mind more then the body. Left alone for too long however and it will pollute both. It's definitely Feyrbrand."

"You sound like you've met it before." Shana stated, sounding curious.

"I have." Rose answered, and as if she realized a mistake she continued. "I saved Dart from it, remember? Everything else is just stuff I've read up on for specific dragons when I was younger."

"Rose, you seem to know a lot about dragons and whatnot, so let me ask you something." Dart stated while thinking. She nodded for him to continue.. "Has Feyrbrand been known to be a violent dragon?"

"Not really. It tends to keep to itself mostly." Rose answered. "That's why I came here to begin with. I'd heard rumours of a dragon matching what I remembered of Feyrbrand, being sighted, so I became curious if there was a dragoon behind it."

'_She said 'remembered' not read. I guess she'd met it before. I wonder though, could we utilize the dragons we fought before this time? It seems like such a waste killing them outright._' Dart thought.

The group continued on, fighting off several more groups of monsters before stopping at a path that led to a shrine located in the forest.

"The poison is getting thicker. We're going to have to fight it before we can sufficiently rest." Rose stated. Lavits nodded in agreement.

"I can tell." Shana agreed as she bent over to catch her breath. "It's getting harder to breathe."

"The we must hurry and get you out of here as soon as possible." Rose said, sounding a little worried. No one would normally have caught it, but Dart was one of few who had ever gotten to truly know her.

"Yea, let's move quickly. The sooner we're out and done with this, the sooner we can end this war." Dart agreed.

Continuing forward they noticed that the monsters were only surrounding the next are, refusing to get closer.

Lavits looked one in the eyes. "Creepy looking things when they're not trying to kill you."

"The fact that they're afraid to get closer means the dragon is close." Rose told him.

"Careful Shana. Try not to overdo it or if you've already been infected by it, the poison will only spread faster." Dart told his childhood friend.

"Right."

Lavits stopped and Dart bumped into him. "What is it?"

"A large web." Lavits said. "Why a web?"

Rose answered. "Feyrbrand resembles a spider and praying mantis in looks. The fact that it might have arachnid or insect like qualities shouldn't be so surprising. Dart, you should burn it with some fire magic so we can cause some damage, and get down there. If push comes to shove when it's time to get out, we can fly them out."

"Sure." Summoning a ball of fire in his hand as if he were a Wingly, he fired at the middle of the web. "That's still pretty tiring."

"Really? I've gotten used to it. It's not too draining on me anymore." Rose told him.

"Let's just go." Dart said as he stepped forward to fall to the ground below.

Landing in a crouch, he watched as Lavits landed next to him in a similar position. Shana came next and they caught her as she landed. Rose however landed in the knee deep water next to them, slipping and completely submerging herself before standing up quickly..

Looking at her in silence Dart couldn't help but immediately begin laughing, Lavits was much more reserved only barely containing his snickers, while Shana was covering her giggles. She had such a sour look on her face at her humiliation. Stepping out of the water, she glared at Dart.

"Watch yourself, cause I _will_ get you back for laughing at me. And it will _hurt_." Rose hissed.

"Of course you will. Shall we continue, oh wet one?" Dart grinned. He was completely defenceless against the sudden shove that had him grabbing onto Lavits resulting in two more members of the group getting soaked.

Dart looked at Rose who looked indifferent to what she had caused. "Witch." He called her playfully. It only intensified her glare.

Lavits glared at Dart as well. "You know we're not here to play. Flirt on your own time."

Shana in the meantime was having a very hard time containing her giggles.

"Let's go." Dart suddenly said, getting serious. '_This is where I finally start making use of this chance I've been given._'

Getting through the small cave system was beyond easy. There was only one or two monsters down there and they were too terrified of their location to attack.

Shortly Dart could see a man in gold armour with a lance in his hands standing near the exit. Lavits spoke up. "Greham. That traitorous bastard."

"Careful Lavits. If he's done here, you should know what he is." Dart warned him as they walked forward.

"Know what I am?" Greham asked, having heard the statement. "And what do you think I am young man?"

Dart looked at him. "I know, your a Dragoon. Otherwise you wouldn't be here willingly."

"To think such bright people lived in Bale. I'm surprised." Greham said in mock shock.

Rose stepped forward. "Please. For other dragoons it was easy to figure out that behind a dragon being used in war, there is always a dragoon. The only problem I see, is that you don't deserve that power. I'm afraid we'll have to relieve you of it."

"I've had this power for three years now. Don't think you can beat me so easily." Greham mocked as Feyrbrand came forward..

"Your 11,000 years to early to try your hand against me. I've been a dragoon since I was 13." No one made a comment on her 11,000 years thing. It was just a saying for most people. A way of emphasizing one was too unskilled to be a threat.

"Rose, can you hold him on your own?" Dart asked. Mostly out courtesy as she could probably win this on her own if she tried.

"He'll be dead before you finish Feyrbrand." Rose told him softly as darkness surrounded her. It left her to reveal her dragoon form to the world. Dart and Greham followed suit. Greham had wind kick up a small dust storm that covered his transformation.

Once everything was cleared, Lavits and Shana couldn't help but feel left out. Here they were participating in a battle of legendary creatures, and they were the only ones without magic.

Before they could blink, Rose had put Greham on the defensive, while Dart shouted out orders to Lavits and Shana. "Lavits, hit and run tactics. Avoid getting poisoned. Shana keep your distance, and keep moving."

Dart flew in fast and went to impale the dragon in the heart. A quick movement had Dart landing face first in the dirt. Seconds later his sword was being blocked by claw like appendage, and his foot had connected with the Feyrbrand's face. It normally would have sent it stumbling but it was to set up for his next movement, so he held back. Summoning fire magic, instead of launching it, he surrounded his swords in it.

They lit up as if they had been soaking in oil. Using these newly improved weapons, Dart's onslaught had Feyrbrand avoiding more often. For something so huge it could be insanely fast.

Lavits hit's leg with a swing of his lance, causing it to kick out with the leg launching Lavits far from it. "Damn. For such skinny legs it's insanely strong."

Shana was having very little trouble. All she had to do was stand back and shoot arrows. Each one hit it's mark, but either broke on contact or didn't seem to phase it. '_Maybe if I pull a little harder._'

Trying it out she noticed her arrow double in speed. Hitting Feyrbrand in the shoulder area of one his claws, she watched in awe as it reeled in pain. This distracted it long enough for Dart to cut off the injured appendage.

Before she could fire another, Greham landed before her with his lance raised in defence. Rose's blade landed on it a second later. Shana was surprised to feel the force of the blow. Especially since neither had touched the ground yet, and she wasn't the recipient.

'_Rose is so strong. No wonder Dart likes her. He'd never have to worry about her like he would me._' Shana thought as she knocked another arrow and took aim at Feyrbrand.

"You really are good." Greham commented breathing heavy. "A lot more skilled then I."

"I told you didn't I? Your 11,000 years to early to beat me." Rose told him, as she attacked again. She wasn't breathing heavy in the slightest. " I'll tell you why. I'm still just playing around."

"No way. No one can be this strong, and still just be toying with me. Especially a woman." Greham shouted.

"Not my strength. My skill and speed."

Feyrbrand stumbled into Greham as it was knocked backwards by Darts strong double upper slash. In response Greham launched green energy like wings towards Rose as he used Feyrbrand's presence to get behind her. It was intercepted by a large fireball which had exploded with the green wind magic. It did nothing to stop him from slashing Rose's arm spraying blood across Dart as he held the Feyrbrand off again.

Unfortunately for Greham, she had lunged forward upon noticing him, so while he had injured her, he himself had a few feet of cold steel enter his stomach and twist, ripping it open.

He landed a few seconds later stumbling. Lavits stopped his assault on Feyrbrand to deal with Greham.

"Why Greham? That's all I want to know."

"Ah Lavits." Greham spoke clearly, despite his wound. "I was always jealous of your father. I suppose that turned out to be more powerful then my friendship with him."

"It wasn't only father you betrayed. You betrayed the Knighthood, and King Albert."

"They meant nothing to me. But I do apologize for leaving you fatherless. Unfortunately, I can't find it in me to regret my decision." Greham told him. Suddenly he coughed blood, and fell on his back. " I'll apologize... properly to your... father in... a few... seconds... Lav...its."

With that Greham's armour glowed and returned to stone form. He was dead.

Suddenly, shocking Lavits from his staring at the man who had betrayed everyone he knew, Dart's cries echoed loudly in the cavern.

"Hiyah! Raagh! Die!" Dart shouted as each cry he made dealt a critical and powerful blow to the dragon. Each one sending it backwards, until his final cry.

With his demand that the dragon die, he finally found the opening he was waiting for. It's heart. Impaling and twisting, Dart quickly removed his weapon and dropped one of his swords. With his free hand he reached into the dragon and pulled out a piece of it's heart. It's life ended at that moment, collapsing to the side.

As it's life ended the piece of heart Dart pulled out, solidified and changed into a light poisonous looking green colour.

Rose flew over to him. "That's why you wanted to know how a dragoon stone came into existence? Why do you want it?"

"Why not have it? It could help us. Or not. But it can't hurt to have it with us anyways." Dart told her.

"Fine. But it's your responsibility until we find someone who can wield it." Rose told him.

Neither of them had noticed Lavits holding a glowing Jade stone, until he called out to them for help. "Uh, Dart, Rose. I think I'm a dragoon."

Both looked at Lavits. "This can't be a coincidence." Rose muttered.

"Nope. I heard multiple dragoons only appear in times of world crisis, so something big must be going down for us to be popping up like this so quickly." Dart told her as he flew down to get the sword he dropped, and congratulate Lavits.

'_Just who are you Dart? You know so much, and not all of it can be gained from books._' Rose thought, before she flew down to the group.

"So how do I transform?" Lavits asked.

"We shouldn't talk here. The three of us are fine now, but Shana is still vulnerable to the poison." Rose answered.

Dart spoke up next. "But to answer that one question, well, just focus on a fight, and call out to it in your mind."

Following Dart's words Lavits held his place just a few feet above the ground after the dust storm died down.

"Wow. This power is intoxicating." Lavits mumbled, though everyone heard him.

Anything else that he might have said was cut off by what happened next. Shana began a hacking cough.

Rose caught her as she fell to her side. "The poison has affected her too much. It's amazing her mind held out as long as her body did. We need to get her some treatment now, if only to prevent the poison from affecting her further."

"Right. Let's go." Dart said as he and Lavits flew up out of the rather large hole the dragon had made for it's nest, followed by Rose carrying Shana.

The three ran into town, Dart immediately stopping and asking for directions to the clinic. Getting them quickly the three burst through the clinic doors.

"Doctor! We have a girl here being affected by dragon poison. We need you to treat her immediately." Dart half shouted at the man.

"Dragon's poison? Well put her here on this bed, I'll take a look and see what I can do." The old man told him quickly.

Rose stepped forward and placed her on the bed. The doctor immediately began checking her over. After several checks he frowned and gave her a dose of several medicines.

"There. That should hold the poison in a state of stasis for now. I didn't believe it at first but it's definitely something I've never seen before, so what else can I do but believe your tale." The doctor sighed. "What was such a cute little thing like her doing with a dragon though?"

"She fought against it alongside us. We were fighting it to stop the war." Dart told him. "Is there any way to save her?"

"Well, there is this one legendary plant. Of course it's only a myth, and no one knows if it really exists." The doctor explained. "It's called the dragoni plant. Said to be able to cure any illness, poison, disease, or injury."

"We'll take our chances and search Lohan for information regarding it." Lavits nodded as he turned around to leave.

"Right. Doctor, I trust she'll be safe here?" Dart asked

"Of course. Just hurry back. I don't know how long I can stave off the poison."

As soon as the group left Dart brought up Dabas. "I'm sure he can help us, or at least point us in the right direction."

Asking about Dabas, they found his shop quickly. "Well this is it. Hopefully he's here by now. We did move pretty quickly."

"You did. In fact I just got back here myself." Dabas said from behind them. "I guess you were pretty eager to check out my wares then? Wait, where's that other girl."

"Poisoned. We need your help to find the only plant that can cure the type of poison she has." Rose stated.

"Right. Let me just put my stuff inside and I'll see if I have it, or if I know where it might be." Dabas told them.

Following him in, they watched as he unceremoniously tossed his bags in a corner, and fetched a small notebook. "What's it called?"

"Dragoni plant."

Several seconds later. "Afraid I don't have it. No plants under D. I'll check my notes to see if I know where it is. In the mean time, feel free to look around."

Dart took him up on that, looking for some armour. Ever since Kongol had smashed his with that demon-like strength, he had been relying on evasion unless he was a Dragoon. It didn't take very long for him to find something he liked.

It was the same blood red colour as his old armour, but it was thinner, and allowed for more manoeuvrability. It covered only one shoulder with a thick piece of shoulder armour, and came with a pair of gauntlets and grieves. His previous armour had covered all of one side of his upper body and only had two knee pieces, which he still had on. With two blades this would be far more practical armour then what he had had before.

"Hey! I found it. It's in a shrine a little ways off from the forest you came out of to get here. Or so that's what my notes say. No wonder I never went to get it. It sounds too easy to be a fun adventure." Dabas announced loudly. "There's only a plant to go past, but it can just as easily be walked around."

"Thank you." Dart called out, before continuing. "How much for this armour?

"Huh? Oh, well, uh, is that all your getting?"

"Probably. Why?" Dart asked.

"Well, if that's all your getting I could drop the deal on the discount and just give it to you. You did save my life, and if giving you that armour saves yours it makes us even."

"Sounds good to me." Dart answered quickly placing the pieces of armour on his body. He still had the chain mail on from his old armour so had no reason to remove his shirt to get on the extra chain mail.

After putting the armour on, the trio quickly left. All they had to do was get Shirley's shrine and then they could finally start to end the war.

'_Soon. Soon I'll start to fix everything that went wrong._' Dart thought, as the three ran past a vendor calling out to them, and soon out of Lohan.

Anyone paying attention, such as the silver haired man standing on the roofs of the houses of Lohan, would see three streaks of light heading for the shrine beyond the forest.

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A/N: I wonder if I've been overdoing anything. Ah well, I hope you all enjoyed this. I haven't had a lot of free time lately, so I apologize for the lateness and any mistakes you find.

Anyways, I've been thinking of changing the title, as I've said before, so if if the title suddenly changes, don't be surprised.

As usual, let me know what you thought of this chapter, and tell me what I could improve on.

I'll try to have the next update sometime before or by the end of May.


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry it's been so long. Thanks go to _**greigar **_for letting me know that's it's been so long and for getting my off my lazy arse, and back to writing for this story. Now to give you the chapter you've been waiting for.

**Chapter 6**

Flying low, Dart, Rose, and Lavits came to the entrance of the shrine just as Lavits touched the ground in a run. As soon as he stopped his Dragoon armour vanished in a flash of light, and knelt down panting.

Flying in place just above him was the bulky form of Dart, his wings releasing waves of heat with every beat.

Rose, floating next to him over the water of the lake the shrine was built in, crossed her arms in annoyance, as her own wings released a small black haze that seemed to want to suck in the everything the world had to offer, but vanished in seconds.

"What's up Lavits?" Dart asked impatiently. He'd have probable been tapping his foot rapidly had he been on the ground.

"I can't keep it up. That was my first transformation, and I can't keep up with you two." Lavits told him.

Rose flew over to the walkway Lavits was one before releasing her form in a flash of black energy. "He's got a point. It is his first time using it, and we weren't even in battle. It's harder on you when your not in battle to transform for extended periods of time."

"I guess." Dart agreed as a red light flashed and Dart landed in a crouch next to Rose, his normal armour far less bulky then his dragoon armour. "Well, let's not waste any more time. Have a quick drink and lets move."

Nodding, Lavits quickly leaned over the edge of the walkway to take a few gulps of water, before the trio continued moving. Coming up to the entrance of the shrine, they paused.

"Hm. That carving is of a dragon." Lavits noted. "Hopefully, there isn't one guarding this place."

"Doubtful. It's probably just some ancient shrine that worshipped a Dragon, before the Dragon Campaign." Dart answered. Before thinking of another possibility. He had never found out just why Shirley had come to this place as a ghost. "Or maybe after the campaign to worship a specific dragon that had helped them during the campaign."

After saying that, Rose seemed a little more distant to the two males. Shrugging it off Lavits lead the way entering the shrine. Dart followed.

Rose looked up at the dragon carving for a few seconds before jogging lightly to catch up with her companions.

Dart ignored everything else, and went straight for the clues to proceed. This was one thing he remembered above all else. He had no idea why, but this place stuck out in his mind. Probably because if it hadn't been for Rose and Lavits the first time, he would have drowned after getting the numbers for the first barrier.

This time, he had Lavits get the chest alone. He could swim after all, and making Rose go alone, well, he was pretty sure she'd just transform and fly back to them. And if she didn't she'd probably just wait alone by the exit not bothering to come back to them, to tell them she was fine.

By the time Lavits made it back he was looking grouchy.

"Hey, did you see any numbers that might be what we need to insert into that dial?" Dart asked his now soaked friend.

Lavits grumbled. "Yea, yea. I'll put it in."

When they got to the statues, they just simply jumped the last three steps as the stairs turned into a slide. They had of course failed the first time, before just doing things the easy way.

"Well, that was easier then I thought it would be." Lavits looked shocked. "I thought we'd have to rearrange those statues or something."

"We probably would have had to, if it wasn't so easy to just jump over the last three steps to avoid sliding down." Rose told him.

Walking up to the small building at the top of the final set of stairs, a man jumped down from the top of it.

"You did pretty well, getting past my traps, but your not going to get Shirley's treasure that easily." the man stated.

'_What was this guys' name again?_' Dart thought before answering. "Look... uh whoever you are, we're not here her treasure." '_There's a lie if I've never told one before._' "We're here for some Dragoni plant to heal our friend."

"Liars." the man shouted.

'_Well, it seems I really can't lie._' Dart thought.

Lavits interrupted. "We're serious. Look, I'm the head of the 1st Knighthood of Basil, we're not treasure hunters, we're looking for a plant that can heal our friend. Do you have any?"

"Do you think I'm that stupid? Drake the Bandit doesn't fall for tricks or traps. I set them." Drake shouted. "I'll defend Shirley to the end."

"Some bandit. By definition of you profession, shouldn't you be attacking this Shirley?" Dart asked, speaking before Rose hoping to avoid a fight.

Of course, Rose was never one to pass up an opportunity for Violence to ensue. "Let's just kill him and take what we came here for. It'll be faster, and Shana doesn't have very long."

"Fiends! You reveal your true nature." Drake shouted again as he pulled out some knives and shot them at Rose.

Rose of course was gone by the time the knives left his hand. Her sword already closing in on the mans stomach. He jumped and narrowly avoided the attack. Unfortunately for him, Dart had already begun moving, in his direction, swords drawn.

Drake reached into his pocket pulling out a bomb and chucking it at Dart.

Batting it away with the flat part of his blade, Dart ignored the explosion it made behind him, and instead launched himself in repeated stabs and slashes at Drake.

Drake, used to dodging, because of his smaller then average body, dodged each attack with acrobatics. Right up until Lavits shoved his spear though his side.

"Ugh!" Drake gargled as blood pooled into his mouth. The wound would bleed a lot, but he was likely to live for another ten minutes without treatment.

Shirley appeared at that moment. "Dragon Knights... your disturbing my rest. Why?"

Lavits went wide eyed. "What the hell...?"

Dart kept quite.

Rose after her initial shock immediately spoke up. "Shirley... it's me. Rose. Do you remember me?"

"Rose?" Shirley questioned briefly before checking her out. Rose remained still. "I see. So you've been alone since then?"

"Yes. I see you have been until this man came." Rose pointed out.

Lavits seeing Dart not asking, asked himself. "We came for Dragoni plant to save our friend, Shana. She is suffering from Dragon Poison. Do you have any?"

"Lavits... I don't think it exists. Does it Shirley?"

"No. I have to say, that was me telling people that came here over the years, that it was the power of the Dragoni plant the healed them." she admitted. "But you came here to save you friend anyways. Using the power of my White-Silver Dragoon spirit, you can heal her. It is filled with healing magic and light magic."

"So then you'll..." Lavits started.

Shirley interrupted. "Only if you answer my questions truthfully and meet my standards."

"Fine." Dart and Lavits agreed, while Rose nodded.

"Dart and Lavits, tell me, why do you fight?" Shirley asked.

Thinking it over, Lavits answered first. "To protect those close to me."

Dart looked to the heavens before answering. "To protect the world, from the worlds, greatest threat."

His answer got weird looks from Lavits and Rose. '_Dammit. I forgot her questions are asked after she looks into our hearts._'

"Dart, bare your heart to me." she said as she gazed into Dart's eyes. Slowly she transformed into Zeig. "Son, tell me, what gain do you have protecting the world?"

Shirley's form froze Rose in her place. Her breathing stopped. For a minute before she started again, trying her hardest to remain silent. Dart was similarly shocked, but kept his composure much easier.

"A peaceful place for everyone I care about, and even those that I don't care about to live without fear." Dart answered him.

"I see. Tell, me boy, what about those who will weep at your death should you fail? Will you leave them behind anyways? Your friends, or the many, son?"

"Of course I'll choose the same thing you did, father." Dart left his answer at that, knowing Shirley understood.

"Smart boy. The protection of many almost always outweighs the protection of a few, unless of course the death of one causes the death of many." Transforming back into Shirley, she spoke up again. "That was an unexpected form, but none the less, you have passed my expectations. Lavits. It's your turn."

Lavits nodded as Shirley transformed into King Albert.

"Lavits! Why are you here? You should report back to me immediately!"

"That's nothing like what His Majesty would say." Lavits growled.

"Are you disobeying a direct order? Choosing one over many?"

"Despite it being the opposite of what Dart said... yes. Shana needs me more right now." Lavits insisted.

"Well, said. Dart you should keep this in mind as well. Life is precious whether it is one or many."

Transforming back into Shirley she had one more question for both the males. "Dart, continuing your journey will bring you many truths you have yet to find out, and will bring ordeals far harder then you've ever faced, in any lifetime you may have had. Do you still want to go on?"

"Of course. No matter what, I'll move forward. Nothing can be gained from backing down or standing still." Dart answered determinedly.

"Yes. That's exactly right. Lavits, who is the most important person for you to protect?"

"Mother, although she'd probably disown me if she found out I chose her over my friends."

"Yes. Family and friends are important, and I can tell your decision was based off the fact that your friends can defend themselves. Bonds can make you strong, and it's human to protect those you feel close to."

"Lastly Rose. What does life mean to you?"

"I've never really thought about it, but... I've started. Dart and Lavits have given me plenty to think about now."

"Rose... Dart will reawaken the old you. He will lead you to a better future. Now, with my White-Silver Dragoon spirit, light up your path through the darkness."

Handing Dart the stone, she had a last request. "Can you heal Drake? He has protected this place, and me, from many unsavoury treasure hunters for a couple of years now."

"Very well."

Kneeling next to the man who had seconds at most left to live, he activated the healing light from the White-Silver Dragoon by drawing it out with his own dragoon stone.

Flipping to his feet Drake, held his barely healed wound and stood in front of Shirley. His face was pale from the blood loss, but he forced himself to remain conscious.

"Drake... enough. Please rest. Dart, hurry to your friend and heal her." Shirley ordered. "And if time permits it, feel free to take the gold and other items I've horded in my shrine. Rose... I hope the time we meet again is much shorter then the from the last time we met, but still a good number of years away."

Lavits shook his head not knowing Rose's history, as Shirley vanished, and just guessing it was a strange wish from the ghost.

"Right. Rose, stay with me and help me gather the items. Lavits, head to Shana with the stone. We'll catch up quickly enough."

"What?" Lavits sounded shocked at that.

"The doctor is holding the poison off. I reckon he can keep it up for about a week. It only took us half a day to get here flying." Dart told him. "If you can fly back, even just half way, we'll make it there tomorrow around mid-morning. Rose and I will be able to catch up. Besides, it will save us a trip back here."

"Fine. But try to hurry." Lavits sighed in defeat. He transformed with a little difficulty, and took off.

Drake looked at Lavits in awe, before he too left the shrine. With nothing to protect here, he figured it would probably be best if he went back to his old village.

"Right then. Let's get start looting the place Rose." Dart said as he entered into the Shrine.

Rose sighed. "You make us sound like bad guys."

"Hey, I've always wanted to loot something before, but morals kept me from looting towns, and peoples houses."

Rolling her eyes, Rose proceeded to pick up satchels of gold and placed as many as she could into a single strapped bag she had found in the corner of the room. "If we're gonna be finding more items, and more gold, we're going to need a few bags like this."

As the two started to leave, Rose spoke up. "I knew your father."

"I noticed. The look on your face gave it away. Funny thing is, you look about my age. So either he's alive, and hasn't found me yet, or your much older then you look." Dart told her.

"The latter." Rose told him.

"Thought so. Considering you know so much about the Dragoons, and the Dragon Campaign, I'd hazard a guess your older then quite a good number of Winglies."

Rose nodded but looked at him with a murderous gaze."Let's drop the subject before I reveal something I'll have to kill you over."

"Fine, but you might have found I know a lot more then you think I do."

"Like what?" Rose asked, curious.

"You might find out later." Dart told her, as he jumped into the air transforming seemingly effortlessly.

Rose paused at his quick transformation. She could do so outside of battle as well, but it took her several months after she had first got her dragoon stone to do so. Something really was wrong. '_Very well Dart. I'll play your game. But I will find out just what it is your hiding._'

Her thought finished, she took off after him.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Catching up to Lavits the day before took them less then an hour. They had stopped several hours outside the town, after exhausting themselves flying, for the night. Lavits had been pretty quiet.

In actuality, he had been thinking extensively about his two companions. One seemed off to him, like she had something to hide. And not necessarily good. Though not quite bad either. Rose of course though was an enigma, and seemed mysterious by nature.

The other, Dart, however seemed as if he had something of major importance to reveal, but continued to keep it to himself for unknown reasons.

Lavits trusted both of them with his life, as everyone had their own secrets. It's just he wanted to know what could have two of his friends rub him the wrong way so much, but still make him feel comfortable enough to talk openly about just about anything.

What probably really got him about Dart, was he seemed to know a some things were about to happen before they did, and said the right thing, or acted the right way accordingly.

After finally giving up his thoughts, he shook his red clad friend awake to take over the second watch. Rose would take third watch.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

"Finally, we made it." Dart said as they walked into the town.

Lavits nodded. "Now we just have to get to the doctors and get this stone to Shana."

"We best hurry. I'm not sure I trust medicine to hold off dragon's poison." Rose offered as Lavits broke into a run, Dart following after clapping Rose on the shoulder in an effort to get her to run with them. She rolled her eyes but did so anyways.

Lavits rushed up the stairs to get off the ground, just as Dart was cut off by the peddler he remembered he scammed out of a bottle.

"You!" the peddler screamed as he jumped in front of Dart. Rose, not expecting his sudden stop crashed into him sending him to the floor, nearly crushing the old merchant.

Getting up Dart was bombarded with praise. "I've seen you before a few times. You look like a very intelligent man. Have I got a deal for you. I found this great gem. It is the perfect roundness, and looks a bit like an eye. As intelligent as you look, I bet you'd want this amazing work of nature for yourself am I right."

The merchant had pulled the gem out during his rant. The two Dragon Knights took one look before Dart's arms outstretched to keep Rose from cutting his head off, and holding her back. "How much?" '_More to the point, how did you get something that was on the Moon That Never Sets old man?_'

The old man, having been scared by Rose's sudden blood lust, quickly told him. "100 gold, just don't kill me."

"I won't. Now Rose, play nice, and give the creepy old man a bag of gold, so we can get the gem, and go see Shana's recovery." Dart chided her, waiting until she stopped struggling to unwrap his arms from her.

Deciding paying for the obvious Dragoon stone was easier then dealing with the law enforcement for killing someone, Rose grudgingly payed the man.

"I still think it would have been easier to kill him." Rose said as the two walked through the door to the doctors. Lavits glaring at them.

"And what cause a panic. We'd have lost the damn thing for sure." Dart complained. "Besides, you damn near gave that old man a heart attack when you lunged at him like that."

Shana, sitting on the bed, looked confused. While Lavits seemed annoyed, and angry. The doctor was simply as confused as Shana.

"He'd have gotten a lot more then a heart attack if you hadn't restrained me." Rose complained.

"Well, we would have been chased out of the city by the law enforcement if I hadn't." Dart pointed out.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "You don't think we could have killed some half trained fodder."

"We'd have decimated them. But not the point." Dart told her.

Lavits had had it. "ENOUGH!" when everyone was wide eyed and looking at him. He continued talking to the arguing duo. "Where the hell did you go? What did you buy? And why the hell did you nearly kill someone Rose?"

"We didn't go anywhere." Dart told him, trying to build up a story.

"We got stopped by some old merchant." Rose continued, trying to get the information out of the way.

Dart picked up before Rose could continue. "He sold us a gem that, surprise, surprise."

"Is a Dragoon stone." Rose interrupted his overly dramatic story telling.

"Rose nearly killed him cause he was selling it." Dart told him, getting upset she ruined his story.

As if trying to defend herself. "Dart grabbed and stopped me from even reaching him." In reality she was appeasing Lavits' curiosity about whether she killed him or not.

"And we bought the stone, and then came straight here." Dart finished.

There was a short giggle. Right after it was full blown giggling.

Lavits started chuckling right after the giggling started. The old doctor just smiled.

Finally the giggling stopped. "You two, sounded so perfectly in unison, I couldn't help it."

"What do you mean Shana?" Dart asked, before realizing who he was talking to. "Oh and welcome back to the world of the conscious sis."

Frowning lightly at his term, Shana sighed and answered, as Lavits' chuckling stopped. "You finished each others sentences, like an old married couple."

Rose didn't smile laugh or even seem to change moods. Dart however, being an expert at explaining Rose's moods to the others, noticed her frown deepen slightly.

Deciding he'd see what Rose would do, he slung his arm over her shoulder. "Do we now?"

Dart never received an answer for he quickly met the floor shortly after meeting a small pale fist.

Getting up, Dart ignored the now throbbing pain in his cheek.

The doctor spoke up at that point. "You know, since you all defeated a dragon, I'm sure you would all be perfect contenders for the Hero Competition tomorrow."

"Hero Competition?" Dart asked. '_If I recall correctly, that's where I first met Lloyd._'

"Yes. It's a competition for powerful warriors. Anyone may enter, and usually the match is called before you lose your life, to prevent death's and to make it safe enough for kids to watch."

Dart looked over at Rose. "You'll join right? I know Lavits can't, being the commander of the Knighthood and all, but you'll join right?"

"I'm a little too good for these kinds of events." Rose admitted.

"So? I want to see which of us is better." Dart told her.

"Fine. I could use some warming up before I beat you."

"Well, I'll, be sure to root for you Rose." Shana told her.

"Same here." Lavits agreed.

Dart gasped. "Traitors!"

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Rose looked at her opponent bored. He was some old man, who thought he was still in his prime.

"I won't take it easy on you just because your a girl, lass." The old swordsman told her.

She rushed him, moving faster then he could draw his sword the second the match had begun, and sent him crashing into the wall swordless and sheildless.

"This really is boring."

"Winner Rose!" The referee cried.

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Dart looked at his opponent. He had used a magical item supposed that was supposed to poison his target. Too bad Dart had moved before it reached him.

Dart got right into his face and placed his swords into the cheaters stomach. Pulling them out, he let the medics drag his body out of the arena in an attempt to heal him.

'_How on earth did I enjoy this last time?_' he thought as he exited the ring sheathing his weapons.

The referee frowned. "Despite clearly killing his opponent, Dart Wins. I would like to warn him that killing is frowned upon, and that we hope this was an accident."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Rose's next opponent, was some fool using a bow. She either dodged or blocked each arrow, before getting bored and cutting his arm off.

"Not even a challenge."

"Winner Rose!" The referee shouted happily. "Would miss Rose perchance like to go out with m- Please don't point your sword at me, I swear I was joking."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Dart looked at his heavy set opponent. He had gotten warned last round for killing his opponent. He's have to be careful this one didn't die naturally inside his armour.

The larger man brought his hammer down on Dart, only for Dart to push it aside with one swords and stab his hands together with his other. The mans hands rendered useless, he dropped his hammer, and cried his eyes out about something or other Dart didn't care about.

"If your gonna cry when you loose, don't fight." Dart told him as he left the ring. Sufficiently bored.

"Winner Dart!" The cheer of victory seemed forced.

'_Guess this time he doesn't like my 'Style', huh?_' Dart thought.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

An old man of 60 fought against his final opponent. A swordsman by the name of Lloyd.

The young man was skilled. Very skilled. Far more skilled then Haschel, the old man. Never the less...

"Your not gonna beat me that easily, boy." Haschel told him as he got back up, holding his wounded side.

"Don't fight any longer. Any further injury will kill an old man like you." Lloyd told him.

"You seem to think I'm the same as every other old fighter."

Gathering his Ki, Haschel focused it all into his fist and feet. Bursting forward, at speeds only Lloyd himself could match He caught Lloyd by surprise and sent him crashing into the wooden barrier of the ring from a strong punch to his stomach.

"How'd you like that, punk?" Haschel laughed.

"Not bad. If you had hit me anywhere else, I likely would have had a shattered bone. Instead, I only vomited." A voice answered as a figure walked out of the rubble, a little vomit still dripping from his chin. He wiped it away quickly.

"Well, your young, and I didn't want to end your fighting days just yet." Haschel told him. "Unfortunately it seems you were right. I'm done. I can't hit you again like that for a little while, and your not knocked out. You win, boy."

"Winner Lloyd!"

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"This is the match to determine who will face Lloyd to determine the victor and runner up, and who will face Haschel to determine the third place winner. This Match is between the 'Dark Flower' Rose, and the 'Cruel Fire' Dart- please don't kill me, I didn't come up with names miss Rose. Let the match begin."

"I'm gonna win this Rose, and you know it." Dart called out.

"Yea right. Your a few years to early to beat me." Rose called back.

"Geez, don't play the age card, hag." Dart smirked trying to get a rise out of her.

The next thing Dart knew was that he shouldn't have said that. He blocked and dodged, and rolled backwards to avoid the flurry of stabs Rose was throwing at him. When he finally managed enough distance to attack for himself, neither one of them moved an inch forward or back, locked in an endless flurry of flashing steel.

"This is getting boring Dart, care to try something else?"

"I'd play another age joke here, but I barely survived the last one, so what do you have in mind?" Dart asked, as he continued to block and attack.

The referee stared in shock. "This is amazing. These two fighters who defeated each of their opponents with single attack, just like our other two members of the final four contestants, seem to be equal in terms of skill and strength!"

"Stupid referee. Your clearly stronger, I'm just more skilled." Rose tsked. "Anyways, what do you say we take this to the skies?"

"That'd be foolish. Everyone here would learn we're dragoons, and then the place will be swarmed with soldiers from Sandora looking for us. How about we just start using magic instead?"

"Now why didn't I think of that? We could use some more battle practice with it."

Both warriors jumped back and sheathed their weapons, before summoning their respective elements into the form of a ball. Fireball met darkness ball in a glorious eruption of fire and black magic. The magic fight however, barely lasted 2 minutes before both hit their knees panting.

"Swords again." Dart heaved.

Rose nodded.

Their duel resumed at a far slower pace then before.

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"Well, I'm sure Diaz might like to know his Dragoons can use magic in their human forms." Lloyd though out loud to himself.

Turning to prepare to fight a weakened fighter, he knelt down in pain clutching his stomach.

"Damn you old man. That's gonna hurt for a week."

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Rose had gotten tired of the long drawn out fight, and given up, though agreed with Dart personally that it was a draw. She then dropped out of the tournament, landing Haschel the third place spot.

Dart however enjoyed a quick sword draw match with Lloyd. It was a simple match in that the faster swordsman would knock the other swordsman's sword, or swords, away. Dart had lost spectacularly, having the sheathes ties cut, and not even being able to draw his swords, let alone knock Lloyd's away.

"Congratulations, Lloyd. Your are the winner."

Lloyd ignored the referee, and the crowd and walked back into the fighter room. Dart gave a quick wave, before following, and was quickly followed by Haschel, who wanted to catch up with his friend.

"We'll have to have a real match when I'm not sore all over because of Rose." Dart called out to Lloyd as the silver haired man was leaving.

"I'd like one as well. When the war is over." Lavits told him as he passed by him to meet with Dart and Rose.

Said girl didn't even look twice at Lloyd. Haschel however. "I'd like a rematch too, but I'll only be getting weaker in a few years time, and you'll just be getting stronger."

"Well, who knows what the future will bring." Lloyd said before leaving them completely.

Everyone seemed to be silent after he left. Right up until Haschel decided upon something.

"Dart!" Haschel half yelled. "We've got some catching up to do!"

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A/N: I hope this long chapter more then made up for the wait. I had about a ¼ of what's written here written a month ago, and then this week I swore I'd double it and release it to you all. Well, instead things just seemed to keep on flowing. And now you get a 5000 word chapter to make up for my lateness.

So tell me what you think? Good? Bad? Acceptable? Also, I'm hoping it's next chapter when the first really huge change hits the pages, but it might be another two, possibly three chapters.

Well, till next time.


	7. Chapter 7

Well, this is the 7th chapter of Once More With Changes. I really should have thought of a better title, but whatever.

Here we go now!

**Chapter 7**

"Dart!" Haschel half yelled. "We've got some catching up to do!"

Dart gave a small smile with a chuckle at Haschel's personality. He knew first hand, even before he had ever heard of the Dragoons just how quickly that cheerful, loveable old man persona could vanish. The second battle started, Haschel became a nightmare. With just his fists and feet, Haschel could probably take on a hundred men without back up.

"We sure do, old man." Dart agreed.

"You know him Dart?" Lavits asked.

Dart nodded. "I travelled with him for a few years during my hunt for information on the Black Monster."

"So he's a friend of yours?" Shana asked.

"Yep. He's like family to me. An old loveable grandfather with fists of steel." Dart smiled.

He wasn't lying at all. Haschel and he were related through his mother. He had found that out through many odd facts. Haschel's daughter was named Clair, and Dart's mother was named Clair. On the moon, they both recognized the woman they met as their Claire. Besides that, Claire had left 25 years ago, which would be just enough time to have met Zeig, fall in love with him, and have Dart. It was too much to be a coincidence.

Haschel rubbed the back of his head. "Stop. Your embarrassing me." He said as the group of now 5 walked out of the fighters room and into the game playing area. "So, which of these girls is your sweetheart, Dart?"

"Neither. The girl with the bow is Shana, my little sister, and the other girl is Rose, my saviour." Dart introduced him. "That dumb looking guy with the armour on is my best friend, Lavits."

"Oi! I'll show you dumb looking." Lavits complained as he grabbed Dart in headlock.

Dart continued, though was slightly hindered. "His mother is pushing for him and Shana to get together, so I can't let him die."

"I see. So, if Shana is spoken for by this strapping young lad holding you in a headlock, and you don't have a sweetheart, does that mean the other young lady is available?" Haschel asked smiling at Rose.

Rose didn't even flinch. "Don't even think about it, or I'll be feeding you to the crows."

"Scary." Haschel and Shana muttered.

"So, Lavits." Dart asked. "Want to go on a date with Shana? We've got time, and if you want, I'll pay for the two of you to have some fun. I want to catch up with Haschel anyways."

"Uh... I'm not..." Lavits started.

Shana however took things out of his hands. "Oh can we? I want to try some of these games."

It was clear to everyone she was trying to get over Dart, knowing he wouldn't change his views on her, and Lavits felt a little used at that, but she was also his friend, and if he could help her by playing some carnival games with her, he would.

"Sure then." Lavits nodded in agreement.

Dart handed them some money so they could buy tickets to play the games. "We'll be at the bar. I'll buy you a drink when the two of you get back to us."

"Alright."

With that the group split. Lavits and Shana heading to the ticket booth, and Haschel, Dart, and Rose heading for the bar.

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"So Haschel, how has your search been?" Dart asked.

"Not exactly fruitful." Haschel confessed leaning on the hind legs of his chair with perfect balance. "To be honest, I'm starting to fear the worst."

Dart decided to see if he could get something out in the open. "You never did tell me her name. Maybe I've heard of her, or seen her."

"Hm, your right. I wonder why I never asked you. You had been travelling as well." Haschel said in thought. "Well, her name is Claire, and she has gray hair. Obviously she was a skilled martial artist, but she lacked the strength to be as good as I am."

Dart put on a shocked look. "M-My mother's name was Claire... and... she also had gray hair."

Haschel stopped leaning back and completely fell backwards. Launching to his feet faster then he fell he looked at Dart in shock. "What did you say? Your not joking with me are you Dart."

"I'm not cruel Haschel. And I wouldn't joke around about my mother." Dart told him seriously. "Still, it does sound unbelievable. I mean what would the chances be that two people exist at the same time, at the same age, with the same name, and the same looks? Pretty damn slim, that's what."

Rose took a sip from her glass. She was mildly amused. The two did have the exact same coloured eyes. In fact that was about the only difference Dart had from her Zieg. Well, his hair was longer as well, but it was the exact same colour.

Haschel had gathered a few looks from some other people. Rose sent them all a glare, and not one was still looking in their direction. In fact one guy quickly changed seats, moving to a bar stool.

"Your right. That means the only explanation would be that your mother was my daughter." Haschel answered. "That would mean my daughter was killed by the Black Monster 18 years ago."

Rose sighed, looking down. "Sorry."

Dart and Haschel looked at her. Haschel spoke first. "Thank you, but I think I knew deep down, that she was dead. I guess I was really just looking for some confirmation."

Dart continued to look at her, as if he was trying to tell her not to blame herself for what she had to do. Instead he turned and looked at Haschel. "So I guess that means we're related. Hm, a grandfather huh? Mom only said that her father was alive in another village far away, and that one day I might meet him. Dad said his parents were both killed ages ago by, and I quote 'Flying pyromaniac bastards.' so your the only grandparent I've got left. Hell, your the only family I've got left."

He hadn't lied in his explanation. Even about what his father had said about who killed his parents, although his mother had smacked him for teaching their young son bad words. Unfortunately, telling the truth he didn't expect Rose to actually look shocked.

'_Zieg always used to call the Winglies that. Today is just a day for revelations isn't it?_' Rose thought, taking another sip of her alcoholic beverage to hide her shock.

"Well, there's only one sure way to find out. Did Claire ever teach you a specific lullaby? If so, do you think you could hum it? She made it herself, and it's the only thing I really have left of her so I know I would recognize it." Haschel told him.

"Yea. She taught it to me. I haven't hummed it in years though. I taught it Shana when we were kids." Dart answered. "If I recall correctly it goes like this."

Dart quickly coughed before he started humming the first part of the lullaby.

Haschel nodded to himself with just the first little bit. After Dart finished the entire lullaby Haschel spoke up. "That's definitely my daughters lullaby. We really are grandfather and grandson."

"Well, I couldn't have asked for a more cool grandfather." Dart told him. "I'm a little surprised I remembered the lullaby so easily though. I though it might have taken me a little while to recall it all."

"Well, I guess I should teach you something more then just those basics I showed you when we travelled together then. I know you use swords, but if I teach you to use your feet, you can probably perform a lot better." Haschel said standing up. "But we'll do that later. Lavits and Shana are back."

They quickly explained Dart and Haschel's relationship as grandfather and grandson. Everything else stacked on to the lullaby cemented it, and Lavits and Shana agreed.

"So, Lavits, I found a grandfather, did you find a girlfriend?" Dart asked.

Lavits rolled his eyes ignoring him.

Shana answered. "Dart, Lavits is a good friend, and while I can see myself with him, it'll take longer then a month of travelling together, and an hour of fun and games to completely get over the fact that you see me as a sister, and I don't want Lavits to feel constantly compared to you, so just give it time okay? Besides, who's to say either of us will feel that way about each other?"

Dart nodded. "That's true. I was only teasing him, but fine. I'll stop teasing him about it. More importantly, grandfather, we're heading to Bale to report the death of the Dragon. When we get out of town I'll explain how we killed it. After all, we don't want the wrong people to hear about the hows."

"Are you sure you should even tell anyone other then the King that you killed it?" Haschel questioned.

"Well, we were kind of in a rush to get Shana cured, and some people may have over heard us claiming to kill it earlier so it doesn't matter." Dart told him.

"Right then. Let's get on our way."

As the group of 5 walked towards the exit of town, Dart was getting ready to grab Lavits at a moments notice. As they came upon the gate a soldier was limping in, using his spear as a walking stick.

"That's a Knight of Bale." Lavits shouted as he ran towards him, Dart not a footstep behind. The others caught up easily enough. "What happened to you? Is the King alright?"

"Sandora... attacked us... King Albert... Hellena... taken... help him." the Knight rasped, his words barely understandable.

Lavits put the words together on his own anyways. '_King Albert is in danger, and locked at Hellena. I have to save him!_'

Dart reached out and locked his arms around Lavits' neck and right arm, just in time as the man tried to charge towards Hellena. "Don't be an idiot Lavits. We need a plan to figure out how we're all going to get in there. We also need to stock up on some healing salves. We might need them."

"King Albert... needs me! I have to save him." Lavits shouted, struggling against Dart.

Haschel's form landed in front of him twisted, and part of him shot towards him. The only thing Lavits had seen was Haschel landing and then suddenly Haschel was turned around with his fist planted on Lavits' gut. The force had totally ignored his armour and went straight into his stomach.

When Lavits woke, he stood up quickly shouting "King Albert." only to be backhanded by Haschel.

"You damned fool! When a Knight loses self-control, they can't save anything. Your entire fighting style relies on you remaining fully in control, the most you could have done was die. Dart and Rose took the liberty of picking up the supplies we'll need and will be back shortly."

"But we don't have-"

"Shut up." Haschel glared at him. "Tell me, what good are you to your King dead?"

Lavits dropped his head. "I'm not. Your right. I apologize."

Haschel softened. "It's fine. Even the best of us lose control sometimes."

The door opened. "Hey, we're back. We should have enough healing salves and food between us all now." Dart said, handing around satchels full of healing salve and bandages, and another round of satchels full of dried meats. "Well, since we're all prepared, lets get going. We can work out a plan on the way to the prison, on how we're gonna get in. It should only take us 2 days to get there."

"We'll probably have to sneak in, like you did last time." Lavits said as he got off the bed, following the others as they left

"Yea. But last time I had a plan. Shana wasn't royalty, but still important. I figured her cell would be high up, but not at the top, while the security was going to be lax near the bottom. I was just lucky I was able to speed things up by getting you free, and slipping up past the guards without having to fight them. It certainly increased my survival rate."

"Dart... remind me to smack you for sneaking into a heavily guarded prison alone." Haschel sighed. He had thought once before that his grandson was intelligent. Clearly he threw whatever intelligence he had out the window like unnecessary baggage when it came to saving his friends. Although his 'plan' worked, it was only luck that it had worked.

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"There it is." Lavits hissed.

"Yea, but what there's more then just me here, so we can't sneak in the same way I did." Dart told them. "Besides, I don't think they'd not check a merchant waggon thoroughly this time."

"Well, last time you went one way right?" Lavits said. "They've probably split guards to guard that section a little more then last time."

"Maybe. The only way we're gonna sneak in is from the front anyways." Dart agreed.

"They've likely got some sort of trap closer to the top." Rose pointed out.

"True." Dart agreed, her words reminding him of the monster. Unfortunately, if they did avoid the trap, they'd have to fight almost all of the wardens. "But if they have a trap, then chances are, their wardens are spread pretty thin everywhere else, just in case the trap fails."

"That's true." Lavits agreed. He looked to his left, out of the bushes they were hiding in. "Look, a merchant waggon. We might not be able to sneak in, but we can certainly use it to our advantage."

"How?" Haschel asked.

"You guys hide on the cliffs overlooking the prison, and be prepared to cross the drawbridge." Lavits told them. "I'll rush in behind the merchant waggon, and kill the drawbridge controller to drop the bridge for you."

Shana disagreed. "Lavits, that's too dangerous."

"It's all we've got, and we can't let Emperor Doel rule this country." Lavits insisted. "Now let's go."

Dart nodded and began walking away. Rose followed. Haschel looked at Lavits for a few seconds. "Your a brave man, but your also foolish as well. Still, we can't sit around letting our friends die, so let's hurry it up and save this King of yours."

Shana followed Haschel a little hesitantly. She didn't want any of her friends to risk their lives like this, but she knew Lavits would never forgive himself, if King Albert died.

'_Then again,'_ She thought. '_We've been risking our lives since we left Hellena Prison the first time. Killing that giant snake, getting involved with the war, fighting at Hoax and at that fortress in the marshes, travelling through a volcano and fighting a Virage and Firebird, and we even fought a Dragon and Dragoon. Besides, four of us are Dragoons, and Haschel is a martial arts master. I suppose we'll be fighting until this war ends. Maybe even longer._'

"Come on Shana!" Dart yelled. She had been moving rather slowly as she thought.

"Sorry!" she called back, running to catch up.

The group waited as the merchant showed he had no one else but himself on board, and quickly started across the bridge. At that moment, Lavits raced to the drawbridge, and just as it began raising itself, landed on it and continued his charge. As they heard that sounds of spears clashing Dart lead all of them to just before where the bridge would land. As soon as the sounds ended the bride fell back to them.

Lavits came out to reveal he was unharmed. "Let's go."

Dart nodded and followed his friend, the others just behind him.

They travelled the opposite way Dart had the first time, and started going up by using a lift system. There wasn't many guards either. They had gone virtually unchallenged along the way up. Other then a few guards on the bottom floor.

"I don't like this." Lavits said. As the came to the last floor the lift would take them to. "There is almost no one here."

"They're probably gonna attack with as many as they can near the top." Haschel said.

"Hey Lavits, wasn't there a grate on the floor last time we were in that high room next Shana's tower. Where we found her key?" Dart asked. He knew of course, but it this way he could give them an option.

"Yea. Now I think about it there was." Lavits agreed as they stopped before the next room. "What about it?"

"Well, what if it opens by a release mechanism, and it's the trap? I've heard rumours that Fruegal has a pet he feeds prisoners to. And if that's true, there would have to be two ways in. One to throw prisoners into, so they're hurt from the fall, and another so those who built it could get out." Dart explained.

"Okay? What are you getting at?" Lavits asked.

Rose answered. "He's saying that since in order to get us onto that grate, they'll need to surround us and force us to go back to back, while standing on that grate. In other words, do we attack as soon as they have us surrounded to avoid the trap but fight an unknown amount of enemies, or fall for the trap and hope there's a second way out, so that our enemies our lax and think we're already dead."

"Keep in mind we have no way of knowing exactly what this 'pet' is." Haschel stated.

"We should fight the wardens." Shana spoke up. Everyone, surprised she was saying they should kill humans, instead of a monster, looked at her. "Well, like Haschel said, we don't know what it is, or how strong it is. But we do know that we're far better then the wardens here. Not to mention we have no idea where that second way out is, or if it's hidden or not. If it's hidden it could take us hours to find it. We also don't know how far down the drop is, and the fall could kill us if it's too far."

"She's right." Rose said. "Well, our choice is clear. We fight the soldiers. Shana should stay hidden by the entrance when we enter to avoid getting hit or noticed. Haschel can guard her, in the event she is noticed. Lavits, Dart, and I will transform as soon as they surround us. Then, even if they do activate the trap, we won't fall into it."

"Sounds good." Dart grinned.

Lavits nodded.

Haschel cracked his knuckles and his back. "Alright, time to show you young people some real skill."

Dart opened the door, Rose and Lavits on either side of him. Shana and Haschel slipped in behind some boxes just before the three started walking forward. As they stepped into the center of the room someone attacked from behind.

"Hiyah!"

Dart turned and easily blocked. Lavits lifted his spear and side stepped to guard one side. Rose put her rapier in a guard position and ran forward to join Dart and guard his back. They heard their feet scrape the grate. As one they glowed. Dart was engulfed in fire, Rose in Darkness, and Lavits in a mystic green wind. As the light from their magic died down, 3 Dragon Knights floated just above the grate.

Most of the wardens had become speechless. Those that weren't were fearful in their words "Wh-what the hell?"

"What are they?"

"A-attack! They're flying! The trap won't work!" Shouted a terrified warden.

Another attempted to flee only be hit in the head by an arrow. When a second one fell, a third realized what was happening. "There's more then just them!" of course he was silenced just as soon as he said it.

Dart moved to attack, swinging his swords in an upwards direction lifting a warden off the ground and into another warden.

Lavits didn't physically attack right away, instead using his magic to carve up a good portion of soldiers that were on the walkway above them. Those that didn't die from the magic broke arms and legs when the hit the ground below them.

The wardens that attempted to flee, or attack Shana, were met with either arrow, or bone crushing fists. One even attempted to flee from Haschel's fist towards the dragoons deciding that they might be an easier foe. Shana didn't let him get that far.

Rose was like a machine. Any enemy that got anywhere close to her was killed, and anything too far was attacked with dark magic.

The battle barely lasted 10 minutes and not a single scratch had been laid on the Dragon Knights and Haschel.

"That was pathetic." Dart sighed. "You'd think being the guards of the supposedly most impenetrable prison in Serdio, they might be a little stronger."

"Let's hurry." Lavits shouted as he was walking to the stairs, not even bothering to rest.

"Lavits, calm down. We need to take things slowly. What if this wasn't the only trap?" Shana asked as she and Haschel entered the corpse strewn clearing.

Haschel nodded. "She's right. But we should get going. We have no idea what they have planned for the King."

"Right. Let's go, but be careful." Dart told them.

Instead of running, as Lavits wanted, they walked up the stairs. Upon reaching the top of the stairs they were following, they found themselves outside, on a balcony. To their right were some more stairs leading to the top floor of the prison.

"There." Dart pointed out. "In hindsight, we should have killed Fruegal when we were first here, but it's too late for that. We'll have to settle for killing him now."

"I'll take great pleasure in being the one to finish him." Lavits growled.

"Take it easy Lavits. Getting angry will only hinder and you'll only make a stupid move. I'm not going to mourn you if you die doing something stupid." Dart threatened.

Lavits couldn't help it. Despite the situation he laughed. "Thanks Dart. I'll keep that in mind."

"Good. Let's go."

With that the group of 5 walked up the stairs quietly. Upon reaching the top, they could see Albert on his knees, hands tied behind his back, and shirtless. For a King he was very well built. But that went without saying since Serdio always produced combat capable Kings. Fruegal and Albert both had their backs to them.

"Wait." Rose hissed.

"What?" Lavits and Dart asked.

She shook her head. "Look."

She had pointed to the ceiling of the giant gazebo on the prison roof. There was a dozen monster birds. She then pointed to the pillars surrounding the outskirts of the gazebo. At every pillar was two monster dogs. All the monsters were twice as large as usual.

"Shana and I will take the monsters out. You, Lavits and Haschel should focus on Fruegal." She said speaking directly to Dart. He nodded. "Come Shana. It's time to break you in on using that Dragoon form of yours. If you start getting tired land. If you don't you'll fall."

"R-right."

Shana and Rose descended the stairs a bit to avoid having the glow of their transformation seen. Shana's transformation put a slight blush on Lavits' cheeks and a grin on Haschel. Dart had turned away to keep watch, just in case the light was seen.

She was engulfed in light, and her form was clearly visible. Her clothes seemed to disintegrate, leaving nothing to the imagination, and her armour formed over her after her clothes had vanished.

Unlike Rose and everyone else who wore tight form fitting full body suits underneath their armour, Shana wore a silky teal skirt under her thigh guards, her belly was left bare, and she had silky gloves that reached all the way to her elbows.

"Wow. So much power." Shana whispered as though she were light-headed.

"Let's go." Rose told her, leading. Shana nodded and followed.

"Alright lets go, boys." Dart muttered. He quickly lead the charge. Fruegal turned from his talk with the King to see Dart jumping at him, one sword raised to strike and the second poised to defend if needed.

"What the hell?" Fruegal yelled, swinging his club at Dart. Dart managed to slip his hand on the club and get enough grip to slide flip over it. His charge had hidden both Haschel and Lavits. The latter of which slid across the ground to avoid the club, and stabbed upwards into Fruegal's abdomen.

As expected Fruegal being attacked had the birds and dogs attacking. Many of which were taken out by arrows of light, or thrusts from a rapier.

Haschel had come in just as the club was out of his way. He jumped just enough to reach Fruegal's head, and delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to his temple. Fruegal hit the ground and rolled.

"Bastards! I'll send you all to hell!" Fruegal roared as he got up, and swung his club randomly.

Despite the women dealing with the monsters, some did manage to reach the men. "Fucking dog! Bite me again and I'll bite you back." Dart yelled as he shoved his sword into the dogs head.

Lavits ignored any of his attackers instead focusing on killing Fruegal. He used his spear to pole vault his feet into Fruegal's stomach. As little damage as it did, it was enough to knock the overgrown man down.

Haschel reached Lavits just in time, as the club Fruegal had smacked into him just as he attempted to finish him. He caught the Knight and back jump kicked Fruegal in the chin as the man was getting up sending him sprawling again.

Dart, having dealt with one of his attackers, ignored the other one and rushed Fruegal. He spared a single glance in Albert's direction to make sure the monsters weren't attacking him. It was enough and Fruegal managed to block his sword strikes and kick him backwards.

Lavits, getting up, saw Dart on the hit the ground and Frugal walked forwards. As Fruegal raised his club to end Dart, Lavits threw his spear. "DART!"

It struck Fruegal in the head and came out the other side. Fruegal's hands slackened and the club fell to the floor. His arms hit his sides, as his knees crashed to the floor. Dart rolled backwards just as Fruegal fell forwards into the spot he had been laying seconds before.

Any remaining monsters either flew off or ran away, as their master was dead. Lavits gathered his spear. At the same time a scream tore from the Kings lips.

"King Albert!" Lavits cried as he looked to his longtime friend, and liege.

A man in a cloak was behind him pulling something out of his back.

"Ah, I figured it was here." the man said calmly. His voice was familiar to the others, and Dart was reminded of just how easy Lloyd was to hate. "The Moon Gem."

"King Albert!" Lavits roared as he began to charge. Dart ran too. This was one thing he refused to allow to happen again.

"Lavits! Wait!" Dart called as he transformed. He was faster at that then Lavits, and Lavits had just transformed and reached Lloyd as Dart tackled him.

Lloyd was momentarily shocked, that he had missed, even if just barely with his thrust. He didn't particularly care whether he had killed him or not, he just couldn't fight at this point in time. He was on a tight schedule.

He turned and ran vanishing over the edge of the prison.

"Damn it Dart!" Lavits roared as he threw Dart off of him and into the air. He transformed back. "What's your deal! That man injured the King, and you'd just let him escape!"

"Lavits, he was about to-" Dart started, Lavits interrupted.

"I don't care. You always do things like that. Acting before something even happens. You somehow knew exactly what the trap was in this prison, you knew how to get past Drake's traps in Shirley's Shrine, and you knew that Kongol was a Giganto before you even saw him!" Lavits roared. "I was willing to allow those things to slide, since you were helping us progress further. But now? What reason would you have for allowing an enemy to escape?"

"Your right. I don't have an explainable reason." Dart told him, as he landed and transformed back like the others had done. "I just ask that you trust me for now."

"And why should I? Why shouldn't I take you down right now? For all we know, your working for Doel and your just getting close to me so you can kill me and Albert, and gather information." Lavits said, no longer yelling. He was so pissed off with Dart, he looked normal.

"Several reasons. One you don't stand a chance. Two I am on your side. And three, I just saved your life, again." Dart told him, at his confused look at the last thing, Dart explained. Or explained without giving anything away. "I figured you would be so angry you would ignore any weapon he may have had, and attacked him anyways. With that in mind, I decided that making sure you didn't do anything stupid was a good idea, and stopped you from attacking. Clearly it was the right thing to do since he had a sword that was clearly powerful and made from magic."

"The Dragon Buster." Rose spoke up. "A sword made by winglies, to kill dragons. It acts like a normal sword against flesh, for everything except dragons and dragoons. For us, fighting someone wielding that, is like fighting naked. Actually, we'd probably be better off fighting naked then fighting in our dragoon armour."

Dart continued. "It, along with the Dragon Block staff, were the weapons designed by the winglies to nullify the powers of, and kill, the dragoons and dragons of old."

"Still, what if he had decided to kill Albert?" Lavits asked ignoring the history lesson.

"It sounds cruel, but it would have been better then losing a Dragoon." Rose told him.

"I can't answer that, but I don't think he would have. He doesn't seem like the type to kill unnecessarily." Dart told him. "At least, that's what I think."

'_You can certainly cover yourself Dart._' Rose thought. '_I don't know how you knew, but I know you knew he had the Dragon Buster. You know as well as I that normal weapons can't damage us Dragoons very well. Just what secrets do you have? I will find out._'

"We should go somewhere we can relax." Shana spoke up. "Or at least somewhere somewhat safe."

Haschel nodded. "She's right, and the King here needs to recover. Besides, these old bones need some rest as well. And some food. I'm starving here!"

Dart chuckled. "Right. We can go to Seles to relax."

"Dart, help me with the King!" Lavits called out. He had decided to trust Dart. They were best friends after all. No matter how angry Lavits got, he would never have actually fought against his friend, and even if Albert had been killed, he doubted he could have fought against Dart any further then simply knocking him out. Besides the fact that he likely would have lost against Dart.

Nodding, Dart went over and put one of Albert's arms over his shoulder.

"Thank you, Lavits, Dart." Albert smiled. "My shirt and armour are next to that chair. If you could, I'd rather be moving around fully dressed."

"Right." Dart nodded. "Shana could you bring his stuff over here?"

"Yep!"

Dart was about to thank her, when he realized they didn't need to carry him or help him at all. "Shana, after that, could use your dragoon to heal him?"

"Sure thing." she replied.

Rose leaned against a nearby pillar and looked at Dart thoughtfully. It was then she noticed something. "Dart. Speaking of dragoons, your belt is glowing, specifically th pouch you put Feyrbrand into. The Poison Dragoon of Feyrbrand. It belongs to the King."

"Really?" Dart asked, dropping the arm of the king, letting him drop to the floor.

"Dart!" Lavits hissed.

Albert was for more forgiving. Or he would have been had he cared. "Me? A Dragoon? Really?"

"Yea. Here, it's yours." As soon as the spirit was in his hands it glowed madly. It was a slightly ugly sight considering it was two poisonous colours of green and purple.

"A dragoon based on debilitating magics? Could be very useful." Rose thought out loud.

"I'm starting to feel a little left out." Haschel commented. "Still, I'm probably more then a match for half of you, dragoons or not."

Rose was about to scoff when she realized he was right. The old man was skilled. Even fighting Fruegal just now, she could tell he wasn't giving it his all. Probably because he didn't want to hurt his allies by accident. He was also strong. She had seen him fight Lloyd, and he had hit him hard and fast enough to send him flying into, and breaking the barrier.

She knew she couldn't have hit him that hard. She relied on skill and speed, but even her speed might not have been fast enough to hit him. She was faster then Haschel for sure, but Haschel had only hit Lloyd due to Lloyd being shocked he could move so fast. Still, would he have the raw power necessary to break through their Dragoon armour? She doubted it, but the force could still injure them, and if he hit them in the head... well, no matter how strong something is, when it's skull is crushed, it's dead.

"Let's just go." Rose called out.

The group nodded and began their descent.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

A/N: Well, here's the 7th chapter. Hopefully it was up to par. I don't know why but something felt off about this chapter. Maybe it's just me.

Anyways, there's the first major change. I'm sure you all expected it, but whatever. It's only the first in a long line of changes to the story.

So, tell me people, is it good? Is it bad? Tell me what you think.

See ya.


	8. Chapter 8

Well, I'm onto chapter 8 for this. I was hoping to work on something else, but everything seems to be drawing me to this story, and one of other stories, but it's all cool.

Anyways, just for those who thought Albert getting Feyrbrand's spirit was out of the blue or anything, please note that I did have Dart gather his spirit right as soon as he'd killed the dragon, so I was leading up to this point. In hindsight I could have timed it a little better, and made it a bit more of an event, but Shana had also just displayed big signs of bad poisoning, and I think it worked out fine enough in the end.

Anyways, enough explanations, and on with the story.

**Chapter 8**

"So basically that gem wasn't just an heirloom?" Haschel asked. "It was actually some magical object given to us humans by the winglies when we kicked their flying hineys 11,000 years ago?"

"Uh, basically yes." Albert nodded.

He had just given them a rundown on what it was Lloyd had stolen from him. He noticed Rose seemed a little perturbed, but guessed it was just her trying to figure out if it had anything to do with the Dragon Campaign that she seemed so knowledgeable about.

Dart he noticed was actually bored with his story, though he did seem like more of an action kind of guy at first glance. But then again Rose looked the same way. And yet, both were so knowledgeable about the Dragon Campaign and many other matters, that Albert couldn't help but feel Dart and Rose both knew something more then he did about the gem.

He continued. "It's a little more then that though Master Haschel. I can't give a full explanation on it's purpose unfortunately, since the story was lost through time. Now all we really know is we were told to look after the Celestial Moon items to protect them. So my family researched magic to hide our Moon Gem within the current King. As a race humans are usually completely inept at magic, but over time some of us have been able to use some aspects of it, like rare magic items such as _Burnout_ and _Spark Net_. I've heard my Uncle has a research team dedicated to it's study. It's actually quite fascinati-"

Dart cut him off before he could delve into a longer rant. "And I'm sure it's interesting but no offence, we can hear it later. Rose and I are gonna break you in on the specifics to your Dragoon form, and it's capabilities instead. It's the newest Dragoon stone, which makes you it's first user. Not exactly Kingly though, considering it deals in poisons."

"Uh, yes of course." Albert agreed, ignoring the last part and a little put out at being shut down like that. Lavits had nothing to say to Dart's comment. Mostly because he was asleep.

He knew of the Moon Gem's purpose, as Albert had confided in him, so he had no reason to stay awake. Besides that, he had been on a major adrenaline rush throughout the day, and the second he had relaxed he had fallen asleep.

"Right, then come this way. Rose will show you how to call upon the magics in human form, and in your Dragoon form if you have trouble there, and I'll teach you to fight in the air." Dart told him, as Rose followed them out of the underground basement they were in.

Shana looked up. "Hm, I think I'll see who survived the attack on Seles." She quickly left the basement as well.

Haschel sighed as the 18 year old girl left. He looked at Lavits' sleeping form. "That leaves me with the babysitting. Unfair, I should be out hitting on the young women."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

After the trio had finally returned to Seles from the forest, they noticed the town seemed happier.

"Huh? Guess Shana must have wandered around." Dart commented. A little girl heard him.

"Dart! Your back too! We weren't sure if it was you when you came in earlier, and we didn't want to disturb any other fighters. Especially not since Master Tasman left a couple of weeks ago." the girl seemed really excited. "So are you and Shana gonna stay and help us rebuild?"

Dart didn't even get a chance to answer. Shana's parents had seen him and had run over with Shana slowly following.

"Dart!" Shana's father cried. "You had us worried. We heard from the twins and Plos that you had left before we even managed to wake up."

Shana's mother enveloped him in a hug. "Your like a son to us. You should have stayed around to tell us what you were going to do."

Dart smiled and hugged her back. "Sorry. My little sister was in danger and I had to save her, otherwise I'd have failed my role as a big brother."

"I'm glad you take your role so seriously." Shana's mother told him. "When we took you in we were surprised you didn't want us to adopt you. Although it became clear why when Master Tasman took you on as an apprentice."

Shana's father took over. "You never intended to stay here for your whole life at all did you? Although, I'm curious, when did you take up using two swords, and why?"

"Uh, about a month ago, and mostly just because I felt it'd give me something to use for defence and allow me to attack faster." Dart told him. He continued in a joking but honest manner. "Side's I'm strong enough to use two large swords and not worry about their weight slowing me down."

"Who are you friends here?" Shana's mother asked, noticing his two companions.

Shana answered. "Oh, they're two of the people I told you about. She's Rose, and he's King Albert."

"Shana!" Dart and Albert snapped.

Shana blushed heavily realizing her mistake. "Oops."

Luckily the little girl had already left and only Shana's parents had heard her.

"Please, don't stand on formality with me." Albert said quickly to the two shocked parents. "Actually, if you could, will you tell me why the two of you look so young yet have a daughter of 18 yourselves?"

"Huh?" Shana's mother asked as if she'd heard correctly. She had been complemented by the King. She quickly remembered his question and did her best to answer. "Well, I'm 32 now, and we actually haven't had any children ourselves. I'm barren you see. We adopted Shana 18 years ago when a dying man carried her here in his arms. He had come from Mille Seseau claiming a monster had been hunting her. She was only a baby at the time probably only a month or two old."

Albert being so knowledgeable quickly noticed a similarity. "18 years ago you say? If I'm not mistaken, that was when the most recent Moon Child was born. Pity it was once again killed by the Black Monster."

"Yes. We'd heard about that from Dart. He had said something about the princess passing around the town in an attempt to prevent the Black Monster from killing them all for coming in contact with her." Shana's father noted. "It's a pity the Black Monster took a shortcut going through the town and destroying it anyways."

Dart actually hadn't said anything about the Moon child, and had only said it as a kid when he said he'd almost met royalty, but she'd passed around town instead for some reason. Apparently it had gotten around pretty quickly that Princess Louvia was the moon child. Royalty could be pretty sly when they wanted to be since Shana was the real moon child.

"Although," Albert continued. "Why would he say a Monster was hunting her? Perhaps she was also born on the night of the Red Moon and he had been too hopeful in that she was the Moon Child."

"That's what we assumed. She isn't exactly the epitome of a blessing after all. Just a normal country girl." Shana's father said as he ruffled her hair.

"Daddy!" Shana blushed.

Dart whispered to Rose. "I've had enough of this talk. Want to go spar in the center of the village or something?"

He wasn't quite enough as 4 sets of eyes turned to him.

"What? You want your hometown to see you beaten by a woman?" Rose smirked. She hadn't paid too much attention to the conversation. She was never wrong about the Moon Child. She always got it. Even in the case of twins.

Learning, however, that she actually did not need to destroy Dart's hometown of Neet really pissed her off. She hated killing people for nothing, and she'd wiped out an entire village for nothing. Not that she hadn't done that before. She had wiped out several members of the Tiberoan royal family before, who'd never laid eyes on the newborn Moon Child, and half their guard simply because they were in her way. The only reason the family still stood was because the playboy of a Prince had been out of town with his most trusted Knights for another night on the town. At least the idiot Prince had smartened up after that.

"Please!" Dart responded. "You know you can't beat me."

The two began walking away from Albert and the others arguing back and forth who the better sword-master was.

"Um, Shana did we miss something?" her father asked.

"No. That's just the way they are. Rose only really seems to talk with Dart for very long periods of time, though she does do it occasionally with the rest of us." she explained. "She said we all reminded her of her old friends, and I think he specifically reminds her of an old lover of something."

"Ah."

"Anyways, what can you tell me about what a town so far off the beaten path does to sustain itself?" Albert suddenly asked. "I hope to learn a little about what I can do to help such towns as this one prosper, or at least be a little better off."

Shana's father looked all to eager to begin talking about what he and some of the other men did for work. "Well most of us do a lot of..."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

"So, who's for it?" Dart asked.

"I am." Albert agreed instantly. "I may not wish to kill my uncle, but this war _must_ end."

"Agreed." Shana nodded.

"If it's what you wish for Mi'Lord." Lavits saluted. "Please allow us to escort you back to the castle first however."

"No Lavits." Albert told him. "I have a feeling there's more to this war then just what my uncle wants. Besides, I'm a Dragoon now. I'm as much a Knight as you are in every sense of the word."

"Well, that's actually true. Every royal family decreed after the Dragon Campaign had ended that any Dragoon that ever revealed him or herself was to immediately be treated as a Knight of the highest stature." Rose commented. "It's actually the very first law written in every country, and it was apparently written because no one knew what happened to the Dragoons that vanished with the end of the Campaign, not even Holy Emperor Diaz."

"Of course every Knight is still subjected to the laws of whatever country they are in at the time." Lavits pointed out, before sighing in defeat. "Very well then, my King. But you must allow me to remain in front of you as your guard at all times."

"And that won't make it obvious I'm important?" Albert once again burst his bubble. "Please Lavits. We're friends. Don't make me order you back to Bale so I can protect you."

"Ah, that would be one order I couldn't fulfil, especially if you were staying here." Lavits sighed. "You win. I'll treat you as I would Dar- I mean Rose."

"And why not Dart, Lavits?" Albert asked curious. He had caught his friends near mention of Dart's name.

"Cause your his King, and putting you in headlocks regularly wouldn't be beneficial to your health." Dart supplied. "Anyways, let's get going. Haschel, you don't mind coming with us again do you?"

"Course not. I can't let my grandson die too." Haschel commented. "Haven't taught you my ultimate technique yet, Dart. It must live on!"

"Alright, onwards to Kazas." Dart ordered loudly.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

The journey to Kazas had been about as eventful as when Dart, Lavits and Shana had journeyed to Hoax from Bale. It was far more time consuming however, due to a lack of horses.

The group made good use of this extra time though. During every night when they stopped, they would spar or practise magic. Or in Haschel's case meditate. Lavits proved to be as good as Dart at using Magic in his human form. In other words, he could get a few shots out, but otherwise failed terribly. Albert was a little better then both of them.

Shana however took to the magic quickly. Her magic wasn't strong, but it's backlash of light healed. It was unfortunate however, as it was indiscriminate in who or what it healed, so enemies would benefit as well. No one could figure out how it could be used other then when they needed emergency care, and she struck the ground with it. She was still trying to see if she could make a choice in what was healed or not.

Upon entering the city of Kazas however, the group quickly noticed how dark the town seemed. It was kind of thrust at them.

They had barely even entered the city, when Rose had thrown a street urchin against a wall for trying to pickpocket her.

"This place is almost desolate. You know, just without the emptiness." Dart commented. "We're not gonna get in through the front gate though, so let's try and see if there is a way to sneak in."

"Right. I've heard there's some people who resist Doel, figuratively, in town." Albert informed them. "They go by the New Serdio Party. Apparently they're run by women and the elderly, but their representative is apparently pretty young."

After asking quickly about the New Serdio Party they were pointed the direction of the lower class citizens, not that any citizen of Kazas was exactly high or middle class. From there they were pointed to the smallest shack available. It was just large enough for the group to stand in comfortably.

"Hello. I don't think I've seen you before. Are you looking to join the New Serdio Party?" the little boy asked.

"Sure." Dart answered.

"Dart!" Lavits hissed. "Don't just join something you have no knowledge of!"

"Actually, I was looking to join myself." Albert told his oldest friend, before turning to the boy. "We would all like to join actually. Could you tell us your name?"

"If it's all the same sir, I'd prefer to keep that to myself for now, until I've asked you some questions." the boy told them.

"As long as we can do the same."

"Of course. Okay, first question," the boy started. "Which country do you want to win, Basil or Sandora?"

Dart answered pretty quickly. "Doesn't really matter so long as the war ends. Personally I'd hope Basil wins, but as long is it ends quickly it doesn't matter does it?"

"Exactly. Hate and spite always remain after battles regardless of the victor. I'm glad you honest about your personal preference, but the fact that you really would just prefer the war to end regardless of the victor speaks volumes about your character." The boy was surprisingly wise for his age. "Next question, what should powerless kids like us do, during the war?"

Lavits got that question. "They should help out at home. As a soldier myself, though I wont say for which country, I always worry about my mother, and I can tell you I'd love to have had a younger brother or sister I know was taking care of mom at home."

"I don't mind that your a soldier, though we have very few of them in the New Serdio Party, but your spot on as well. We kids may not be able to fight, but we can certainly do household chores. If we can make sure our fathers and older brothers have a home to return to, we make it that much easier on them when they're out on the front lines." the insightful child agreed. "Last question. Why do people fight?"

Rose spoke up. "That depends on the person. Some people fight to protect those close to them, others fight to protect their land. Further still some people fight because they need their adrenaline high, and others fight simply because someone else has something they want. It all depends on the person. However... people should only fight to protect something. If that were the case though, there would never be a need for weapons.

"If you really want to get down to the most basic motives however, people always fight to protect something. Whether it's themselves, their wants, their needs, their ideals, their loved ones, it doesn't matter, as it can all be linked, however distantly, to protecting something."

"Uh... I never quite thought of it that deeply, but the general response I got was to protect something so lets' go with that." The boy had clearly lost his edge when Rose stepped up the plate. "My name if Popo. I'm the representative for the Serdio Party."

"This young? I heard the representative was young, but not this young." Albert sounded shocked.

"You... I've... have I met you before?" Popo asked.

"Ah... no. You've likely seen my face however. I'm King Albert."

Popo quickly reacted.

Dart stared on in shock. '_If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that kid just had an orgasm._'

Little did Dart know he wasn't the only one with such a thought. Haschel, Rose and Lavits all thought the exact same thing with similar facial expressions to boot.

After Popo had stopped flipping, literally, he told them, after a long tiring process of explaining his hopes and dreams, how to get into the castle from their current spot. It was a good thing too, as Dart couldn't remember.

"Just over here. Once you go down this hole, you'll be on a mostly direct path with the castle." Popo told them. "Oh, I can hardly wait to be free of Doel's rule."

Dart turned to the group of warriors that made up his friends. "Well guys. This is it. Anyone with second thoughts about fighting Doel, leave now."

He waited 10 seconds, with no one responding, before turning back to the hole. "Alright then, don't say I never gave you a chance to back out if things turn sour."

With that the group began their decent.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

A/N: I'm pretty sure this was shorter then the last chapter, by almost 3000 words, but it seemed like a good place to stop it. No action either. I'll try my damnedest to make the next chapter make up for the lack of action in this one, and I hope I can make it sound exciting as well. Fighting scenes aren't my strong suit.

I suspect two chapters at most before I'm done with disc 1.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, regardless of the lack of action

Till next time.


	9. Chapter 9

Well, sorry for the incredibly long wait. To tell the truth, things went sour for a while when my USB vanished, which had all the work for the next chapter on it. I had to start from scratch and get a new USB. I should probably keep back ups on the computer itself.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I hope it makes up for the wait.

**Chapter 9**

Dart grimaced as he blocked a pathetic swing at his head, and ran the failure of a swordsmen through with his second blade. This was pathetically easy. He had been hoping the guards in the castle could provide a decent challenge altogether.

So far none of his friends were even breathing heavy. Rose looked even more bored then himself. Albert was shaking his head in disgust at their weakness. Granted they were only at the outer wall. They would likely get stronger the further they went, but the point was that they shouldn't be this weak to begin with.

"Right, well, that's the last of them." Lavits muttered. "I guess it's to the main part of the castle now?"

Dart nodded to his friend. "Yea. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait to fight Kongol again. At least then we might get a challenge."

"Well, shall we?" Albert spoke up. "It shouldn't be too far from here, though I hear we need a key of some sort to enter the throne room"

Before anyone could respond voices from the castle could be heard. "Intruders! Archers, get ready!"

"Right. Let's move quickly. We can't afford to get poisoned, or start limping now." Lavits called out.

Dart nodded before giving orders. "Move quickly, Lavits and I will take lead, Haschel and Shana take back row, and Albert and Rose in the middle. Our heavier armour will protect us, and it'll be less likely for Haschel and Shana to get hit if they're in the back."

Orders given, everyone nodded before they began rushing towards the castle. A normal soldier was nothing, but archers attacking from a distance could be incredibly dangerous. Especially if they were long-bowmen.

A short-bow like Shana's could pack just enough power at it's strongest could pierce chain mail and maybe kill a man at the same time, depending on where it hit. A long-bow at it's strongest could rip through plate mail, and come out the other side still intact, such was was the difference in power.

It was why the Serdian long-bowmen were so feared when it came to war. They could attack from miles away, and still kill a full unit of heavily armoured Tiberoan Knights with one man, if he was strong enough to pull the bowstring back far enough hit at the proper distance, and if he was fast enough to knock the arrow quickly. Of course he would still need the eyesight to see that far as well.

That said, the group was quick to dodge what they could and block what the couldn't. The arrows rained down around them. Getting closer to the gate, Dart transformed and blasted through the closed gate door, allowing his allies to slip in mostly unharmed. They quickly killed the guards in the gate control room, before settling down.

"Shit. That was close." Dart muttered, as he pulled an arrow out his armour, and began to lead the group down a hallway.

Haschel nodded as he dabbed a slightly damp cloth on his cheek where an arrow had whizzed by his face. "They weren't bad, but I take it they don't have any of the famed Serdian long-bowmen do they?"

"If they do, I don't know why they weren't on duty." Albert answered. "But I doubt they do. They don't have the training grounds for it. We have a specific training ground, that helps them better their eyesight in Bale, and only we have the proper strength and speed training courses for it."

"Right, we don't need to know any specifics." Dart interrupted. "We're busy at the moment. Talk later."

"I agree. Let's keep moving." Rose backed him up. "Albert said we needed a Key of some sort."

"Exactly what kind of key are we looking for?" Shana questioned. "Is it some sort of magic key, or a puzzle, or an actual key?

"Good question." Albert nodded. "I have no idea."

"It's probably a puzzle like key. Three things needed to be in the right spot, that unlocks it." Rose muttered. "These royal types like to think they play mind games like that, but it's not too hard to figure them out."

Lavits nodded. "Yes, our own king, has a penchant for making riddles for us to answer. He prefers the knowledge puzzles rather then the logic puzzles."

"Thank you Lavi-" the King stopped and looked around. "What is this room?"

"It seems to be that these are lifts like in Hellena, but... they don't have any rope to pull them up." Dart pointed out. "Probably run by magic. You did say your uncle had studies being done on magic after all."

"That would make sense." Albert nodded. "I would love to study them, but, perhaps that would be best left until after the war."

"There are two guards who aren't moving over there." Rose pointed out. "They're guarding that lift, but they aren't coming after us."

"Probably trying a defensive tactic." Lavits muttered. "That's fine, Shana, you get one and I get one?"

Shana nodded, knocking an arrow. The guards tensed, and Lavits let his lance fly. The guards expecting an arrow didn't dodge in time. It might have also had something to do with the speed it was thrown, but that was a moot point for the dead guard now.

The other guard, in a fit of rage at seeing what must have been his best friend die, charged towards the group. Shana picked him off easily.

"Well, that's that." Haschel nodded. "I guess we should search around down there for any way to continue."

Haschel had pointed towards the only archway without a lift, and the group nodded moving quickly.

It was a quiet ten seconds going down into the dimly lit room.

"What is this place?" Albert asked in awe. There was a multitude of coloured fires. Green, purple, and a pale yellow that looked almost white were the most dominate colours. The others looked to be experimental.

A man on the floor beneath them looked up and answered. "This is our lab. We study magic here. This green light, is still being studied extensively, as we are still unsure of exactly what it does, though we do know that it, like every other flame in this room, does not burn."

Another man poked his head out. "An I've recently mastered the use of this white light. It heals all injuries, and fatigue. It does nothing for hunger, but if your injured or tired, this light will rejuvenate you."

'_It's like my magic from the Dragoon stone._' Shana thought.

"And the purple flame?" Lavits asked.

"It moves the lifts doesn't it?" Dart pointed out.

"Oh?" The man studying the green light said.

The man studying the white light asked the question. "And how do you figure that?"

Surprisingly it was Rose who answered.

"It's the only other light in here that seems to be studied in any detail, and the lifts won't work without some sort of key." she explained. "I've also noticed they all have a small spot in the wall next to them for a fire to burn, and since these 'lights' come in the form of fire, I suspect it's what you use to power the lifts."

"Exactly right." the two man grinned. "Bravo!"

Green, as Dart decided to dub him, continued to speak. "For figuring it out, why don't you take some Purple Fire. A small torch of the fire, will last you forever, since it is, ever lasting, and never burning."

"Yes, and I myself," White started. "shall grant you access to my healing light whenever you need it."

Green began again. "Do be careful though. We have a colleague who got to into the study of magic, and has gone insane. He might attack you."

"We do thank you though." White smiled. "It's not often that the castle guard take an interest in our work."

No one bother to correct them.

Lavits asked them a question. "Hey, out of curiosity, do you two know how to get into the emperor's throne room?"

"Well, that's easy." White started.

"You just need the three stones that serve as a key to get past the statue of his wife." Green continued.

"One of them is in the garbage dump beyond this place, another, if I'm not mistaken, is held by the commander, and the other is... I don't remember." White finished.

Lavits nodded before turning to his friends. "Hear that? We know where two of the items are now. What should we do?"

Dart pondered for a few moments. "We should split up. Groups of two. Two of us should go and get the commander's key, two will go to the dump, and the other two will go searching elsewhere for the last stone."

"Naturally, it should be two strong people going after the commander, in case we need to fight. We don't know how strong he is." Rose stated. "Probably best for Dart and I to go after him."

Dart nodded, agreeing with the dark haired warrior. "Besides, since we'll be going the closest to the Emperors room first, we might meet Kongol and/or the emperor before we even get to his throne room. Probably best if the strongest are there holding them down, before you lot show up."

Everyone nodded. It was the most logical thing to do. Both Dart and Rose were a far cry better then the rest of their group. Lavits and Haschel might be able to match them, but in Dragoon form, they simply had the most experience and skill. Besides that, Haschel wasn't a Dragoon yet.

"Well, Knight-boy and I can check out the dump." Haschel insisted. "No point in getting the King and Shana to start complaining about their smell the entire fight we have with that Kongol fellow, and the Emperor."

Lavits nodded, for other reasons. "We should be the first to find out stone, and if Dart and Rose end up facing off against our foes before we expected, we'd be the next most useful to back them up. King Albert and Shana would be good for a final interference. Especially if things go south, cause Shana could heal us, and King Albert would hinder the enemy with his debilitating magics."

"I'm not complaining, besides I'm a little curious about the rest of this castle." Shana admitted.

"I agree. It used to be a fortress of mine, but I've never even been here before." Albert confessed. "I think it'd be good to get to know the place before I reinstate as a fortress."

"Right then let's go." Dart started.

"Go where." White began darkly.

"It wasn't very bright of you to talk of killing our emperor in front of us." Green agreed.

"We may not be soldiers, but we're still some of those most loyal to the emperor." White nodded, continuing.

"The emperors orders were to destroy this research if anyone found it who wasn't under our flag." Green told them. "We will not allow you to escape!"

As he said that White had already thrown some purple fire into some white fire. Green fire met the uncommon, experimental blue fire, and soon, all the fires were mixing. They quickly covered all escape routes. Unfortunately, it seemed that mixing them gave them their consuming ability back, as well as their heat.

"Crap!" Dart cursed. "I can't believe we were so stupid to talk about that in front of them."

"It's because they seemed to helpful, and useless." Rose spat.

Lavits raised his arms as a small explosion pushed him back. "We didn't even think they could do anything to us, and now we're paying for it with out lives."

"Not if I can help it." Dart roared, as he transformed. Rose, Albert, Lavits, and Shana followed. "Shana, get my grandfather. Lavits, protection spell quickly!"

"Right!" Lavits shouted, as Shana flew just above him.

Haschel was in her arms, as he nestled his head in her bosom, under the guise of fear. The fact that one of his hands was on her rear did nothing to raise suspicion, surprisingly. The high tension situation made no one realize where his hands were strategically placed.

"_Blossom Storm_!" Lavits shouted as magical Sakura petals floated through the air, and began encircling everyone in the air.

The two magic studiers gaped in awe, at the control over magic their enemies had.

"Now it's my turn." Dart grimaced. "Everyone, prepare for this section of the castle to vanish."

As Dart thought of how he could control his magic in such a way, he came up with the perfect name for the attack. "_Hellfire_!"

The current fire, turned normal, as more fire filtered into the room. Suddenly, the fire turned black as Dart landed on the ground, his own eyes, and the jewels on his armour turning black as well. The fire swirled around him for several seconds before he pushed his arms outwards.

The fire he had gathered almost disintegrated the walls as the entire section of the castle vanished.

When the spell was complete, Dart fell to one knee, his wings no longer beating.

As he was surrounded by his friends, Dart looked towards the section where Doel would be when the got to him. He could clearly see him.

"H-how much of the castle did I destroy?" Dart questioned.

"Most of the right wing. It's only a coincidence that the emperor's throne room is in the right wing." Albert explained. "Kongol is with him."

Dart could tell. Doel looked pissed.

"Well, we're transformed, and we have a clear shot to him. Let's finish this." Haschel ordered, his hand still on Shana's rear as she had yet to let him down. She still didn't fully realize exactly where that hand was.

"MASTER HASCHEL!" Shana suddenly shrieked, dropping the martial artist. Her hands immediately went to her backside, her face red.

"Gramps... not the time." Dart pointed out, as he started flapping his wings again.

"I know. I couldn't resist though." Haschel grinned, before his face turned serious. "Your right though. Let's get a move on."

Dart nodded. "Let's go everyone. We have a Giganto, and an Emperor to defeat."

As Dart carried Haschel this time, the group flew over the rubble of the right wing of the fortress turned castle, and landed in the throne room.

"I would never have expected you, Albert, to resort to such extreme methods." Doel stated angrily as they landed in front of him. "I was going to take it easy on you at first, but I guess it's best if I simply go all out from the start. You all seem to have."

"Uncle... I will stop this war. And you will fall." Albert insisted.

"Kongol will kill you." Kongol insisted. He was wearing some fairly unique armour. "This is armour of Giganto leader. Kongol only Giganto, make Kongol leader.

"Well, then. I guess we should settle things." Dart grinned, as he raised his blades and swung them down, igniting them.

Lavits raised his spear. "You caused a man to betray my father. I now carry his power, and I shall exact my vengeance." Lavits swung his spear down, and it seemed to get even sharper.

"You burned down my village, to capture me. I won't let you get away with it." Shana insisted, knocking a magic arrow.

Rose simply raised her sword and pointed it at Kongol, enveloping the weapon in darkness.

Albert tensed and his spear began dripping a poison that hissed as it hit the floor. "UNCLE!"

Albert was gone in a flash. In that flash lightning hit Doel, and after the flash Doel was a dragoon, and holding back Albert's spear with two swords.

Dart took off and blocked the axe Kongol swung, and pushed back the Giganto. "Not today Kongol. We have a score to settle."

In a pouch under his armour, Dart didn't notice as the gold dragoon stone began resonating, calling out to it's master.

Rose, Lavits, and Haschel joined Albert in tackling the Emperor, while Shana snuck an arrow of light into either Dart's match, or the brawl going on by the throne, to help her team. When it was possible to do so.

Rose, swung fast, and if it weren't for the massive Dragoon Armour that Doel had, she would have cut off his head by now.

"That armour is unnaturally thick." Rose cursed. "The Violet Dragoon stone is an offensive one though, so it shouldn't be that strong."

Doel sneered as he pushed the dark-haired beauty back. "You've done your research then have you? Well, your research is wrong. The Dragoon stone offers you armour and changes to your weapons that fit your style."

Rose cursed. That was something she didn't know. But then, how could she. So far her current allies were the same as her former allies. No... that wasn't true. Dart had used a new attack just recently. Hellfire. So there were differences. Besides, he was more offensive then Zieg ever was, and his armour was less restricting then her old lovers. They looked the same, and had some similar views, but that's where the similarities ended.

Roses eyes widened as her thinking nearly cost her her life. Haschel had saved her by kicking the oncoming sword above her head. The old man, slipped past the second blade and got up close and personal, treating the emperor to a royal ass kicking.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Dart held his ground he was forced to land, Kongol's swing pushing his feet into the ground, as he used both his swords to hold off the Giganto's axe. Suddenly, the axe lifted, and a foot kicked his hard amour. The force sent him flying but it didn't hurt.

The axe following him would though. Righting himself, Dart spun to block the axe, as Kongol surprised him by appearing in front of him, his fist closing in fast.

Dart could do nothing as a huge clawed hand gauntlet met his head. He was lucky, he had ducked enough to avoid the claws piercing his skull. As he landed, he heard something roll away from him.

Turning his head, he saw Kongol stop to pick something up. He bent down looking curious, and Dart saw a small glowing gold pebble in his hands.

"Oh fuck."

Power burst out Kongol, and Dart barely managed to launch into the sky to avoid the piercing slabs of earth trying to kill him.

Kongol looked intimidating in armour before hand. Dart now wanted to shit his pants realizing just how much strength Kongol had likely gained with that transformation. It was because of the Dragoon form, that Dart had been able to fend off the attacks to begin with. Now that Kongol had one, life was going to suck for Dart for the next undetermined amount of time.

"Sometimes, I really hate my life." Dart cursed as he landed taking a defensive and agile stance, his blades ignited in fire once again. "C'mon big guy. I'll show you who's boss."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

**A/N:** So what'd you think? Again, sorry for the wait.

I can tell you, college courses, and online courses don't leave you much time to write stories. Especially when in total you have 10 courses going on, more then one story to work on, some of your time needing to go into working out to stay fit lest your fitness teacher beats you with a bat. Well, let's just say my time can get pretty occupied.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter regardless. As you've seen, there is a major change with the last battle of disc 1, and I really hope you've liked it. I'm also sorry it's a little shorter then I was hoping, but at least you get something.

The Archsage, out.


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry this took so long. I really am.

But here's chapter ten.

**Chapter 10**

Dart didn't even have time to hiss in pain as he was forced to duck. Kongol's speed surprising for someone so big before. But now it was downright, not fair.

Dart cursed as he vanished in a burst of fire.

"_Fangs of the Fire Dragon!_" Dart roared as he surprised Kongol with descending swords bathed in fire. They suddenly grew longer and thicker as fire magic poured into them.

"_Earth Wall!_" Kongol countered as Dart's magically enhanced swords sunk into the earthy defence.

"_Flame Shot!_" Dart shouted as the wall crumbled. The ball of fire grew from between his swords, and he lifted and swung it towards Kongol.

Kongol moved quickly, dodging the ball of fire, but getting hit by a second and third, dodging a fourth before a fifth hit his wing and sent him crashing into the floor.

Kongol got up as fast as he could, raising his armour claws to block the twin swords, and swinging his axe hard. Dart dodged but the two became locked in close combat, with Kongol easily pushing Dart back, but Dart easily dodging the strikes. They were evenly matched.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Albert cursed as a blade of lightning passed over his head, he jabbed forward but his target was gone.

Rose's sword was a flurry as she jabbed, and slashed. Doel's twin weapons were quite capable of blocking most of the strikes, and those they didn't, were unable to pierce the armour very well anyways.

Rose herself then vanished, as Haschel appeared behind her and punched forward. Doel blocked with his swords, but was launched into his throne.

Lavits came crashing down on him, but the emperor was quick, rolling backwards swiftly. Wind kicked up with Lavit's crash and the emperor crashed again. This time into the wall behind him.

An arrow of light hit his left shoulder, and then his right shoulder. Then his right hand. He dropped his weapon. His left hand was next, and his last weapon fell as well.

Albert dove at his uncle and thrust his poison drenched spear forward. "UNCLE!"

The emperor's eyes widened as the spear came out his back. "You've beaten me. You actually did it. Fine. Go north. Lloyd. He knows everything. Find him."

With every pause the emperor made, he drew a raspy breath. The poison of Albert's lance was acting fast.

"What does he know?" Albert asked quickly.

"Everything. Find out from him. About the world. About the tru..."

The emperor said no more, his head rolling to the side. He was dead.

Haschel placed his shoulder on the young King's shoulder. Despite everything, they were each others last remaining family. The King would take it hard.

The sounds of battle hit their ears.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "They're still fighting?"

Shana nodded. "Kongol got a hold of the Dragoon stone Dart bought in Lohan. He's a Dragoon."

"This... might take a while the- never mind. Leave it to Dart to prove me wrong before I even finish saying anything." Rose rolled her eyes.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Kongol swung both hands forward, and cursed to himself as Dart ducked the axe and used both blades to hold off the claw, he swung his feet up and kicked Kongol in the face.

"_Fire Stream!_" Dart called out as he hit the ground, he breathed out a long stream of fire.

"_Grand Stream_!" Kongol countered as earth rose up in a line to meet the fire.

And explosion happened when the magics clashed. Dart burst through it, shocking Kongol. The Giganto swung his claw desperately. It was pushed aside. His axe came next as he started to back up. It was knocked out of his hand. His back hit the wall and his eyes widened as Dart made contact with him. Then, he saw nothing.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Dart's head reeled as he held it, both swords on the ground next to him. "I should _not _have used my head."

Dart stood up several minutes later when his group landed behind him, minus the King and Haschel.

Rose looked at the defeated Giganto. "He's not dead."

Dart shook his head. "I beat him in single combat, and his emperor is dead. He'll probably join us."

"Don't bet on it." Rose insisted. "The Giganto are a violent race, very eager to settle things with violence. Always have been, always will be. I should kill him right now."

"But you won't." Dart told her.

"Why would you think that?" Rose asked.

"Because I said I wanted him to live. He's a Dragoon. We're gathering for a reason. Why should we kill such a powerful one if there is a chance he'll join us?"

"Because there's a chance he'll attack us out of nowhere for revenge if we leave him. And if we wait for him, he might attack on sight." Rose insisted. She raised her blade. "I'd be doing us all a favour if I kill him right now."

Dart raised raised his own swords. "I don't want to fight you over this."

Rose actually looked shocked. "You don't want to fight me period."

"Your right. But I will if I have to, and I'll win."

Things were silent and tense for several minutes after that.

"Fine. Have it your way. But it's on your head if he kills one of us." Rose told him.

Dart sighed. Things were likely to get tense between him and Rose because of this. He hoped that wasn't the case. He noticed Haschel picking up a heavily glowing violet stone.

"Haschel is a Dragoon." Dart muttered loud enough for them to hear him.

Everyone turned.

"This is ridiculous!" Rose practically shouted, acting totally out of character. "It's like the power of being a Dragoon has become a plaything or something! Everyone and their brother is getting the dragon's power. I swear I'm going to kill the next one if it turns out to be a loudmouthed annoying brat."

Dart thought worriedly to himself. '_Brat would define Meru, but it's technical definition is a kid under the age of 12. She should be safe being well over 100. Although, quite technically, the next one is Lenus, so..._'

"We should probably get going." Lavits started.

"Right." Dart agreed, remembering Kongol was illiterate, so writing down where they would be would be useless. "So should we all hunt down Lloyd then. We are all dragoon's and something tells me defeating Doel wasn't what we were gathered for."

"It wouldn't be." Rose muttered. "It's probably something to do with the Winglies, or the Virage, like in the last war."

"Then we still have something to fight?" Shana asked. "That's fine... I guess. I do want to learn more about my strange power."

"I suppose my duty as a King comes second to this. I'll fly there right away to place someone in charge during my absence." Albert agreed.

"I recommend the commander of the 8th Knighthood, and Minister Noish. They should work together pretty well." Lavits suggested.

Haschel laughed. "Well, these old bones still have some fight left, besides, I can't let my grandson run off without me there to embarrass him."

"Excellent." Dart smirked. "Then we'll head to Tiberoa, and hunt down Lloyd for the truth."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Rose had convinced Dart to do some late night training with her, and Dart was smacking himself mentally for agreeing. She had attacked just as he was drawing his blades, without any warning whatsoever.

Currently she was on top of him with her sword pressed against his throat, while he lay flat against the ground, his slightly nervous sky blue eyes staring into her fierce ocean blue eyes. His swords were knocked aside, one only mere inches from him and the other several feet in front of him, were he still standing.

He knew what she wanted, and he was quickly trying to come up with an excuse to tell her.

"Dart..." Her voice was calm, but deadly. "Your going to tell me what's going on. I've noticed things about you, and you know a lot more then most. You also seem to have the ability to predict the future, but we both know that's a lie. I think you know the future, but what I want to know is how?"

Dart breathed deeply. He inhaled the smell of sweat, blood, and death. '_This is definitely Rose._'

"I don't know what you talking about." Dart said, breathing it out swiftly.

"Don't play stupid. We both know your not." Rose told him, pressing the blade against his throat with a little more force. "Just tell me what you know, and I'll let you up."

"And what if I like this position." Dart questioned, trying to buy more time.

"Then I'll cut your head off."

"I see."

Things were quiet, and neither of them moved for several minutes. Rose was just about to start pushing on her blade, when he began to talk.

"I'm not sure I can tell you, but I guess it's better then dying and not being able to do anything at all." He started. "This is my second time journeying with you Rose."

"I take it that future talk I mentioned was a little closer to home then I thought?"

"Yea." Dart nodded. "It was the last fight. We should have won, but it turned out the God of Destruction had one final form. It wouldn't have mattered if that thing had died as well. I could have lived with that, knowing I was the only survivor of our group, but somehow, he regenerated and survived.

"After that, I gathered the Dragoon spirits together and placed all 8 of them in a circle. Somehow it summoned Soa, the creator. I don't really know if I trust him, but he said he never intended for even the Dragon Campaign to happen, let alone allow the god of destruction to win, but that he wasn't going to let this world die without giving us at least one second chance, but that if we screwed up a second time, he was turning his back on this planet. He reversed time for me, leaving my memories intact, so I retained a small amount of the skill I'd picked up as well. For the most part, it hardly effected me, since my body was still physically reversed in time, and wouldn't be able to keep up with my previous skill level.

"That's why I know some things that are about to happen, and try to change or alter them. Originally, we never even got Feyrbrand's spirit, and Lavit's had died. Kongol lived, but he wasn't a Dragoon at this point just yet. Actually he got that just before our final battle."

Rose had set her sword down, away from his neck during the explanation. She continued to lay on top of him. "Why not tell us then?"

"Can you honestly say the others are prepared to know just yet? If I mentioned anything before the war ended, they would have demanded to know everything going on, and then altered things too severely. My memories become useless if I can't use them." Dart explained. "Although, I am curious to know why Melbu Frahma didn't even bother searching for survivors. It just doesn't suit his style to leave on of us alive."

"Frahma!" Rose shouted. "How did he become the God of Destruction?"

"He took Shana's spirit inside of him, and used it to allow himself to become the 'current' Moon Child." Dart explained. "Or something like that."

"I... screwed up." Rose muttered. "I killed the wrong child."

"Yea, but, just so you know, killing the God of Destruction is the only way to end the cycle." Dart told her. "Even Melbu Frahma said that."

"But we have nowhere near that kind of destructive power." Rose scoffed sitting up.

Dart shrugged, sliding out from underneath her to sit up as well. "The Divine Dragon does."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "And how do you expect us to control the Dragon King?"

"Feyrbrand." was the only thing he said.

She looked lost for several seconds, before she looked at him in shock. "You expect us to kill the Dragon King, turn it into a Dragoon spirit, and then find it's wielder?"

"I'm already capable of using it, it just isn't mine quite yet." Dart told her.

"You? No wonder you're capable of using the Red Eye stone then." Rose said. "Zeig always did think that if the Dragon King had become a dragoon spirit, it's wielder would likely be able to use all the other stones as well. The dragon's souls will recognize you as their liege."

"Well that's all well and good but, do you mind not mentioning this to anyone just yet. At the very least I'd hoped to put off telling anyone until after the whole final group had gotten back together."

Rose rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Fine."

Dart's arms surrounded her, giving her the first hug she'd had in over 10,000 years. "Thanks."

Dart stood up after that picking both his swords up, and sheathing them. Rose stood up as well, watching as he headed back to the village.

"Maybe, if we win, I can finally take this choker off." Rose said, smiling lightly. Shocked at the slight pain it brought to her cheeks, she touched her cheek. "I haven't smiled in years." She then chuckled at that. "Nor have I laughed either."

"Hey!" Dart shouted. "You coming?"

Rose looked at him, and closed her eyes. "I guess I'll find out soon enough, if I can remove this choker."

With that, she followed her fellow Dragoon into the merchant city.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

"So this is Tiberoa?" Lavits muttered. "It's hot."

"Yea, well, Tiberoa is mostly wasteland, and to it's west is the massive desert expanse, the Death Frontier." Dart explained. "It's expected to be hot. It gets cooler to the north in Donau, still pretty hot, but not so hot that vegetation can't grow. In fact it's quite the opposite, considering Donau is known as the Flower City."

"Wow, you sure know a lot Dart." Shana said surprised at how much travelling her childhood crush had done.

"I've never had the luxury of seeing Donau, but I've visited Fletz before, when I had requested them to stay out of the Serdian civil war if my Uncle ever requested their help." Albert mentioned.

"Well then Poison King, you should have no trouble getting us into the castle to help protect their Moon thingy right?" Haschel chuckled.

"Mmm. That's true, but I'd rather not let them know that the King of Serdio was running around the world." Albert explained, before his brow crossed in confusion. "But, uh, Poison King?"

"He's referring to the fact that your magic is all poison based." Rose explained to him. "I too find it humorous that the Knight King of Serdio, happens to have poison as his main form of attack. Rather underhanded for a knight."

No one commented on the fact that she hadn't even smirked while she said this, despite her claim that she was amused.

"Well, this is enough of a break." Dart stated. "We should get moving again."

"Wait... what's that?" Lavits alerted with a glare in the direction they had just come.

Storm clouds were rolling in, but there was a golden glow getting larger as it flew towards them.

"It's Kongol!" Albert shouted.

Haschel, Lavits and Rose dropped into defensive positions. Dart crossed his arms and stood at the forefront of the group. Shana knocked an arrow, and Albert stood at ease with his lance in hand.

Dart smirked as the massive form of Kongol crashed into the ground before him.

"You." Kongol said simply, pointing at Dart with his axe. His Dragoon armour wasn't nearly as bulky as it was before, indicating to Dart that he had removed the Giganto armour. He still retained the clawed gauntlet however, as the jagged claws that Dart so often worried about in his fight with the Giganto, were still present.

"Yea. Names Dart." Dart introduced. "Don't know if I ever gave you my name."

Kongol looked at him for a few seconds. "Dart strong. Stronger then even Kongol. Kongol stronger then Doel in human form. Weaker then Dragoon. Kongol become Dragoon, stronger then Doel. Dart still beat."

Dart took a few seconds to process Kongol atrocious use of the modern tongue. "Yea. I'm, probably the strongest, overall, here. What of it?"

"Kongol want see what kind world you make. Will follow you." Kongol explained, before speaking in as best he could. "Kongol hereby swear fealty to Dart. Now Dart Kongol liege."

"Your swearing fealty to me?" Dart asked shocked.

Kongol grunted in the affirmative. "You is stronger then even Kongol older brother." He explained, as though it explained everything. It might have, but Dart knew nothing of Giganto culture.

"Um, alright. I wasn't expecting this, but I accept your offer of fealty." Dart agreed. "But just call me Dart. I don't need any fancy titles or anything."

Kongol nodded. And let his transformation go, reverting back into his normal form.

"Alright then," Dart called out. "Kongol is apart of this group now, and we should get moving. If we hurry, we can make it to Fletz by late afternoon."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Lloyd closed his eyes as he looked at the castle in Fletz.

He was deep in thought. That Dart guy had been much faster then he thought he would be, facing off against the legendary Rose like that.

He knew exactly who Rose was. The village he hailed from, it's elder, had fought against her, and was the only one who'd ever survived. His village, located on the Island of Midlake here in Tiberoa, was one of the oldest Wingly villages, and their magic was as strong as it had ever been.

They traded often with the human villages that were on the shore line of the lake keeping in contact with the world. The entire area was relatively unknown, though the few humans that didn't live their and knew about it, knew nothing about the Winglies.

The humans who lived there and traded with them, kept very quiet about their existence. In exchange, the Winglies supplied them with free health care and defence from monsters and bandits. It was a fair and worthwhile trade. Both parties benefited, and neither lost anything. In fact, the Winglies benefited more greatly then the humans.

The battles they fought to protect the humans gave them training in their magic and physical prowess, as well as their secrecy.

It was the only place where Winglies and humans had ever coexisted, and had been happening since just after the Dragon Campaign. It was why Lloyd had no problem working with humans. He'd been doing it his entire life. Hell the only reason he left was because he wanted to fight more powerful opponents. His magic was easily trained, but his swordsmanship required hard work, and real combat to perfect. More then just the same monsters or half-ass bandits he'd fought.

Then he met Diaz, or the man who claimed he was Diaz. Lloyd was no fool. He knew Diaz was human. A powerful and skilled human, and one of the first few who had been capable of magic, but still human. He also knew that Diaz had died. It was Lloyd's grandfather who had killed him after all. The man had also completely destroyed the mans body to hide the fact that he had died, and instead spread word that he had simply vanished, because his work was done, forever making the man a hero.

The Diaz Lloyd had met was clearly a fraud using his name, but his dream was still something Lloyd wished to see come true. A Utopia where Winglies, Giganto's, Minito's, and Human's could all live in peace with one another. Logically, Lloyd knew that wasn't likely to happen, but he had no problem fighting for it, even if it was a lost cause.

Through this new Diaz however, he had begun to question the man's methods. He'd fanned the flames of a war in Serdio, then had Lloyd interfere with it to look for something called the Moon Child. Lloyd had heard only what the humans knew of it and nothing more, but had thought it dead once again. Then he met the Dragoons.

That had seriously made Lloyd begin to question things. Especially since Rose, one of the original Dragoon's, was still alive. Either the Dragoon stone gave them Immortality, or she was in contact with Charle Frahma, who was known to have offered the original Diaz a choker to give him immortality. He had refused.

But what was most interesting was Dart. Dart didn't know it, but Lloyd had met him before. They hadn't spoken, but Lloyd had seen Dart fight before just months before he became a Dragoon. Lloyd only remembered, because he thought a simple human fighting against several monsters like that on his own was impressive.

That was why he was so shocked to see him learn a completely new style of swordplay, and be a thousand times better then he was previously. Something about that didn't quite add up. There was something he was missing, and he didn't like that at all.

He looked back up at the castle where Lenus was. He would never say this to her face, and he would never allow himself to be caught saying something so weak, but alone, with no one listening to him or paying attention to him, he could risk this one moment. "I'll see you soon, love."

With that he turned, sensing a certain groups presence growing near. Then, once no one was paying attention, he vanished.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Dart entered the castle town of Fletz, the other Dragoons right behind him. As he walked past a bench, he felt as though something was off.

"It feels like someone just used magic here not too long ago." he muttered.

Rose looked at him. "You got that feeling too?"

He nodded.

"Must mean we're catching up then." Lavits frowned. "You did say he was a Wingly right?"

"Yes. I told you, key traits to the Winglies are silver hair, red eyes, and unnaturally good looks." Dart told him again.

Rose continued. "Plus the ability to do magic, and fly using said magic. They also tend to be more capable then humans in weapon combat, so even without their magic they're still formidable."

Lavits nodded. "Just checking again."

"Can't blame him." Haschel grinned. "Everyone thought they were extinct."

Rose kept silent.

Albert committed the information to memory. If he was right, he was sure he had a Wingly in his army. One of the commanders of his Knighthood. The 4th if he wasn't mistaken.

"Well, let's look for clues as to Lloyd's where abouts." Dart announced. "We should split up while we do this. Kongol and Haschel, Rose and Albert, Shana and Lavits, and I'll go on my own. In 3 hours we'll meet at the bar. Lloyd doesn't strike me as the type to drink, so we'll save the bar for last."

"Sounds, good." Lavits nodded.

"Fine." Rose said simply.

Kongol grunted, and Haschel laughed.

Shana smiled and nodded, while Albert began questioning Rose about what else she knew about Winglies.

When they left Dart sighed and left the town. He already knew they'd have to go to Donau, but he wanted to let his friends have a break and relax a little bit. They'd look for information, but that wouldn't take long, and they'd have most of the time to just relax.

Him? He wanted to practice some more on that magic of his.

When he was far enough from the town, he looked at a small group of monsters. "Today is just not your day." And fireballs crashed into them.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

**A/N:** So here's the tenth chapter, as promised.

I hope it's satisfactory, and that your enjoying things so far.

Sorry for this being so late by the way.

Till next time.


	11. Chapter 11

Well, here's chapter 11. I wanted to get this done faster, but muse just wasn't doing it for me. Or at least not for this story. She was more on with my newest story, probably cause it's new.

Anyways, I've managed to get number 11 done for this, so enjoy.

**Chapter 11**

Dart yawned as he strolled into the city again. "I could really use a drink right about now."

After clearing out several groups of monsters with magic, he decided he was satisfied with the fireball. He was now trying to work on drawing it out of his back, in the form of wings. If he could somehow do that, he could go with Meru when she went home in Mille Sesseau and hopefully pass himself off as a Wingly hybrid. If he could do that, then they might be able to gather the support of those Winglies before hand.

Of course it might also make them try to kill them harder. But there was only one way to find out. That wasn't for a few months anyways.

Besides, he fucked up once, and that should have been his only chance. If he refused to take risks with great benefits the second time around, he might have his group make it out of the moon, but his father would still be dead, and Rose would likely die with him like she did last time.

"I still haven't made a proper plan, have I?" Dart questioned himself. "I've just thrown some things I hope to get done, and grabbed hold of situations as they approach. It's probably for the best, I do remember something about how plans almost never come together completely anyways."

Dart stopped to watch as children ran and adults wandered the market stalls. The sun was shining as it always did in Tiberoa. He was actually thinking of removing his armour it was so hot.

"Hey there, Red!" a voice called out. A merchant. "You look like a smart man! By my miracle potion! One sip and you'll be brought back from the dead!"

Dart smiled. "And how, pray tell, do the dead drink?"

The merchant turned from him quickly, ignoring him completely, and trying to lure other suckers into buying his merchandise.

Dart shook his head as he headed for the bar. He was really starting to need that drink. Besides, he had a pretty good idea for his group to relax a little.

Rose frowned as she observed Dart coming in from out of town. He had been using the time to train, and after learning that he basically knew what was going to happen, she felt stupid for not thinking of it herself.

She noticed that the sun was almost in position for 2 hours to have been up there was a lot of time left. Sighing, she decided she'd follow his lead and head to the bar in a few minutes.

She wasn't quite sure what to think of him. At first she had started to think of him as a temporary replacement for Zeig, but that changed when he revealed that he'd basically been using them. Sure it was for a good purpose, and for their own good, but he still used them.

Zeig was nothing like that. But then, he wasn't Zeig, so she shouldn't have been complaining about how he wasn't like Zeig. When she realized that, she realized that what little attraction she had to him was made up.

Besides, it would have been rather odd if anything were to have come from them. After all, what child wants to be so much like his father that he'd end up with the same woman his father did? No child wants that.

"Maybe I shouldn't take my time." Rose muttered to herself. "I think I could use a drink right now."

Albert frowned. Rose had split off from him rather quickly, and he was left on his own. He didn't mind. He was skilled enough to defend himself, and pickpockets were no match for his eyes.

Much to the chagrin of his advisors, Albert enjoyed picking the pockets of all the guards in his castle under disguise when he was younger. He handed them back their money at the end of their shifts of course, plus some, since it was only in good fun.

It taught him to always be wary and keep your purse strings tied tight, and kept in a tight pocket.

Besides, it gave him time to think.

He was a dragoon now. He wasn't progressing in the use of magic outside his Dragoon form as nicely as he'd hoped, but his combat and magical capabilities as a Dragoon were fairly superb. Both Dart and Rose were far superior, and while Rose had who knows how many years to train, Dart was merely very gifted.

Too gifted if he were honest.

It made one wonder just how he got so skilled in under a month.

He seemed to know things before they happened as well...

And then it hit him.

"Oh my." Albert said in shock, before shaking his head. "Well, I can't prove it and it's highly unlikely, but I can't rule it out. Ugh, I need a drink."

Lavits frowned as he walked next Shana. He didn't know why, but Dart seemed to desperately want Shana to fall for him, Lavits.

As if he was outright screaming at everyone that he refused to think of her in a romantic light. Lavits admitted that at first, he though Dart was in love with her despite what he said, but with how often he pushed her away, he soon learned that wasn't the case.

Poor Shana didn't seem to understand until he outright told her. Lavits could also admit that he was falling for the girl, but he didn't want to start something with her, for he knew she would only be doing it to try to move on, making both of them miserable.

He began to think, once Rose joined the group, that Dart had fallen for Rose the last time he met her, but with how often they were either trying to kill each other, threatening each other, or rushing off next to each other in battle, he decided it was one of those love-hate relationships between friends.

A relationship type that caused many domestic disputes between lovers, and almost never ended happily. And with how stubborn and dominating they both were, if the two were to get together, they would kill each other. Any moron could see that after seeing them hang around each other.

The relationship type was great for friends though, since it promoted rivalry and betterment between them. He kind of envied them, but was much more happy simply being a normal friend to Dart. It was safer and more healthy. Healthy in the effect that he was less likely to die.

He frowned slightly and opened his mouth at the same time as Shana.

Shana walked next to Lavits with a lot of thoughts in her head. She had come to terms with the fact that Dart did not like her romantically. She understood that now.

She was finally getting over him, and Lavits' near constant presence was like a tower for her. It allowed her to hold onto something, and overcome her emotions, and gain new ones in their place. She honestly thought that she was beginning to fall for Lavits now. She just hoped nothing happened to ruin that.

Rose was an annoyance to her though. Despite wanting to be more like the older woman, she didn't like her either. Rose was in a position to move on Dart at any time, and she had once wanted that. It was like she was mocking her saying 'Haha, I have that which you once desperately sought.'

It annoyed her. But she wouldn't let it control her actions. She liked Rose as a person, she just didn't like her presence.

She sighed before opening her mouth alongside Lavits, and said, again alongside of him. "I need a drink."

Shana giggled as Lavits blinked. He joined her laughter a moment later. Both of them scaring the people around them, as they headed to the bar. The three hours were almost up, and the sun was descending.

Haschel looked cheery as he walked next to Kongol. Their newest member. He was certainly a force to be reckoned with.

It was only natural that his grandson would be the one to beat him and turn him over to their side. Still, a Giganto swearing fealty to a human was certainly a strange event, and he couldn't help but wonder what it would mean for Dart.

What would the future hold for someone who held the fealty of a powerful Giganto. Especially one who could turn into a Dragoon. Haschel was no fool, though he played the part often. The Dragoons were powerful and served no one. Not even Holy Emperor Diaz had held their complete service. And he never requested the respect and loyalty that they did give him. Laws were even in place that should anyone become a Dragoon, their priorities were theirs, and theirs alone, and that no law was above them.

Haschel didn't know much about them, but he knew what was passed down in his village about them. After all, Kongol's Dragoon stones former user, Belzac, had started their village, and they saw him as a god given flesh for it. Former slaves given freedom on an island, far from the Winglies. He had even been the one to sink the Magical city Aglis when it had attacked their village to retrieve them.

Many of the Dragoons had brought slaves who didn't want to fight over to the Broken Islands. There were now a lot of villages on those islands and it just so happened that Rouge was their first and only line of defence, having the most capable fighters being placed there in case an attack did happen.

"Well, Kongol old buddy, what do you think?" He asked his much larger friend. "Should we get a drink? The sun is going down, you know."

Kongol walked in thought, not entirely sure what he was looking for, but knowing it was small and cowardly, with different hair to everyone else.

These new people he was with were much more friendly. The Shana girl had even become friends with him, as well as the small old man beside him. For some reason when Kongol thought about fighting Haschel, he just seemed to know that he wouldn't win. He knew why though.

But that was besides the point. Even Dart, his new lord, had preferred he think of him as a friend. The others hadn't said anything, but besides the really old one, he knew they all felt the same.

The really old one scared him for the same reason he knew he couldn't beat the old man. Something about her just told him he shouldn't even try.

Dart too had it, but his was more of a warning then it was a threat.

None of the others had it fully, but they had inklings of it.

It was called Killing Intent. Haki. Spiritual Pressure. There were many names for it, but they all described it. A force that alerted others with this force just how dangerous they were. Of course, one had to be trained to detect it even if they had it, and all Giganto were trained to do that at from when they were small.

The second reason the really old one scared him was because she was a normal human, but her scent indicated she was positively ancient. Just that alone freaked him out. Of course none of it scared him enough for it to reflect on his features.

She had to be as old as his home, but even then he was sure she was older then even that.

He needed a drink.

"Well, Kongol old buddy, what do you think?" Haschel asked. Kongol looked down. "Should we get a drink?"

Kongol nodded. "Kongol needs drink."

"... so can you do it?" Dart asked the barmaid.

The barmaid, Kaffi, nodded. "Sure thing. The boss doesn't do them often, but with the amount of 100 gold for a single night sounds great. Right boss?"

"Yea. Sure. It's more then we ever make in several nights, so it's definitely worth it." the bar owner nodded.

Dart smiled. It was a good thing he had convinced the group to loot whatever could from the castle before they left. They had more then quadrupled the gold they had originally had, easily making their funds hit above 10,000 gold pieces. They normally wouldn't have had room for it, but Dart knew that Rose had a bag from the Winglies Era that could hold any manner of things inside it, and she had brought it into play to keep all their funds.

So spending 100 gold to keep the bar completely closed to all but his group was easily done, without hesitation.

"Good. Their names are Albert, Rose, Shana, Kongol, Lavits, and Haschel." Dart told her.

She nodded, writing the names down on a notepad.

Later that evening, most of the group was passed out in a chair, or in Kongol case, on the table.

Only Dart, Albert and Rose were still up.

"I think I'm forgetting something very important we were supposed to do." Dart commented, his words slurring slightly.

Rose, still nursing her second mug, shrugged. "You have had a lot to drink."

"No, no, no. I mean, I'm positive we were supposed to go somewhere tonight, or get something, but I just don't remember." Dart commented.

Albert, who was only barely conscious, giggled before speaking. "I know... you forgot to get the women! You got the alcohol, and the place... but you forgot the women!"

Dart frowned. "Maybe." He tried to think about it, and got nothing. "Yea, your probably right. Sorry I forgot them Al."

"S'okay." Albert murmured, falling asleep.

Dart, too soon fell asleep.

Rose sighed, looking at the barkeep.

"Don't worry about it. With the amount he paid me for the night, I don't have a problem letting this place be an Inn for the night."

Rose nodded. She'd make sure nothing happened to them while they slept, drunk out of their minds. After all, with her choker on, sleep was merely a hobby. The only thing that was truly necessary was food.

The next morning, every one cured of their hangovers with help from Shana's White-Silver Dragoon stone, saw the group of 7 walking through the barren wasteland of Tiberoa.

Lavits was the first one to notice, besides Dart, who remembered what to look for, and Rose and Haschel, who were merely just that good.

"Does anybody else feel like we're being watched?" Lavits asked out loud.

"Since we entered the rocky part of the wastelands." Rose stated.

"Probably before then from this part." Dart shrugged. "We just have to kill them before they kill us if they attack, or hope they don't even bother, but that's not likely."

Dart was proven right, only 10 minutes later.

"Hey you fools! Give us the women and your valuables and we might let you go without hurting you." a voice cried from above them.

When the group looked up, a small group of bandits dropped down, lead by one slouched man with claw weapons, and orange hair in a ponytail. Actually, what hair he had in a ponytail was all the hair he had.

"We're the Gehrich gang, and you better give us what we want." one of the bandits threatened.

Haschel raised an eyebrow, but quickly schooled his features.

Lavits frowned. "Get lost you filthy thieves."

"Or," Rose began, "we could kill you all, and be on our way."

Dart drew his sword. "I don't really care which."

Kongol agreed. "If leave, get where we want faster. If stay, we get kill you. Not matter what choose, we win."

"Damn these bastards are pissing me off." The on Dart remembered as Mappi growled. "Kill them all, brothers!"

And the fight began. It was also over in only a few minutes, with all the bandits save Mappi dead. Some had crushed skulls, some were split in half, most had slashes all over their body, a large amount also had holes in their body, while a small amount had arrows between their eyes, or in their eyes.

Mappi, backed away, while Dart and Rose, moved on him. Dart didn't have to fear losing his Dragoon stone this time. It was stuck in the hole in his necklace, so he was sure, he'd have to come up with another reason to wipe out the Gehrich gang, since his necklace was under his armour.

Mappi, however, proved much more nimble then his 'brothers', and after pulling the same stunt as last time, he proved it. "...Just kidding!"

He lunged, Dart swung, he blocked, using the blade to bounce, over and around Rose. She stabbed, and he spun to avoid, it, a quick lunge to her neck, which she avoided so narrowly, his claws latched onto, and snapped her choker off her neck.

There were two reasons she wore that choker. One was the spell which would halt her ageing process and need for sleep, and the other was her Dragoon stone acting as the gem in the middle of it.

"Not too bad, but I'm not staying here." Mappi grinned, dodging the now sloppy, frantic, and desperate swings and stabs of Rose, who was ignoring something important that had happened to her.

Dart himself lunged, transforming into his Dragoon form to get it back. Mappi once again proved he was an expert on dodging, even when Dart lit his blades on fire, the little bastard still managed to get away, albeit with burns.

He slipped into his escape hole. It led straight into the Valley of Corrupted Gravity, and was only big enough for someone like Mappi to slip through.

"FUCK!" Dart roared. "The little shit is going through some tiny hole."

He let his transformation go, and looked to Rose, who more or less just stood there, with three small holes of Mappi's claw weapon on the right side of her chest, far from her heart.

The shock of what she just lost finally hit her, and coupled with the wound she still hadn't realized she received, she blacked out.

"Rose!" several of the group shouted.

"We have to get to Donau now." Dart growled. "Shana, transform, heal her wound quickly. We need to find out how to get past the Valley of Corrupted Gravity, and get to the Gehrich gang."

No one said anything, but the whole group had noticed that he knew exactly what was going on, and what to do about it.

Shana quickly got to work on fixing Rose's injury.

The whole group was concerned though. If Rose was injured so easily, their opponent was not to be taken lightly.

Haschel specifically was concerned. Some of those moves that Mappi used were the more lethal manoeuvres of his fighting style. He himself couldn't do them anymore cause he was more strength oriented, plus he was getting old, but he knew them inside and out.

Dart was probably the most concerned of all of them. '_Shit. Rose losing her Dragoon stone. She's had that thing for 11,000 years, the connection to it being suddenly broken like that? It's probably the reason she blacked out. What's this going to do to her mentally? Fuck, I was hoping to avoid this. Maybe hiding what was going to happen from everyone else wasn't the best thing I could have done. I didn't even tell Rose every last detail._'

And with that, the group ran, Rose in Kongol's arms, as they pondered over the situation, and what to do about it.

Things were not looking up for the group, with one of their own potentially out of commission, and everyone's moral, as a result, being shot to hell.

**A/N:** Well, there's the 11th chapter.

I hope yo all enjoy it. I know it's not the longest chapter out there, but hey, it's something isn't it? And where better to cut it off then just before Meru gets introduced.

Love that character, Meru. She's got to be the best character in the whole game. Seriously, I can't seem to hit anybody elses final addition nearly as often as hers, and she's so damn fast! I just love her.

Anyways, till next time,

The Archsage.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long. Lots of stuff going on, but it's not like I really need to give you a reason.

Also, for anyone who is interested, one of your fellow readers, **LightShappy**, made artwork of Albert in his Feyrbrand Dragoon form. You can find her profile on Deviant Art under the same name, and the art of Albert in this Dragoon form is called Spirit of Feyrbrand. Hope you all enjoy it.

Now onto the chapter.

_**~Chapter 12~**_

When the large group of Dragon Knights entered the town of Donau, they immediately sought a place to stay for the night, ignoring everything else.

They bought a large room at the inn, and Kongol made sure no one would barge in by sitting in front of the door. The Giganto's frame was so large that even sitting he was nearly as tall as most people.

Rose was placed on one of the beds where she remained still.

Dart had left immediately after everyone had settled into the room, and said nothing about what he was going to do.

Haschel was sure he heard some screams a little earlier, but didn't bother to mention it.

Albert looked around, noticing everyone was silent, the adrenaline having worn off. He sighed, and began trying to make some small talk. "Does anyone have an idea as to why she blacked out?"

"Not really." most said.

Lavits shrugged however and took a guess. "It has to be something to do with her Dragoon Stone. That or her injuries were deeper then we thought." He looked around making sure no one else had anything to add, before continuing to speak. "More importantly, I'm fed up with Dart keeping things from us. He knows what's going on."

Kongol glared. "It not matter. Dart is strongest. Strongest make rules."

"Yea, you keep thinking that." Lavits mocked. "I say we ask him when he get's back, and give him an ultimatum. He tells us what's going on, or we go our separate ways."

Haschel sighed. "Sorry kid, but Dart's my grandson. I'm not abandoning him simply because he might know some stuff that could help us."

Shana nodded. "As much as I want to know what's going on, Dart is still my oldest friend. I don't think I could do something like that."

Lavits shook his head, realizing it was a stupid idea. If he knew what was going on, they'd just end up working together in the end anyways. He was letting his anger get the best of him.

He took a few moment to calm down before continuing. "Okay, I agree leaving would be a stupid choice, but I still think we should know what's going on."

"Well, you've got that right." Albert agreed. "He does know something, and it seems to be important."

"So, we're all in agreement? We ask him to tell us everything that's going on when he gets back?" Lavits asked.

The group nodded.

**~With Dart~**

Dart's expression didn't change even once as he pulled his sword from the back of one the gang members.

"That makes 48." he told himself, leaving the body where it was. He'd killed 48 members of the Gehrich Gang, and he couldn't find anymore outside.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Don't you think your going a little far?" a cheerful voice asked. It was a voice he recognized but hadn't heard since before he had come from the future. "I mean sure these idiots are sleazeballs, and all around ass-holes, but still, a simple beating would have probably been enough, ya know?"

"Maybe, but one of the high ranking members injured a friend of mine, and stole something worth more then an entire country from her at the same time." Dart explained. "We're gonna be looking for a way to get to their headquarters tomorrow morning. I'm just releasing a bit of anger out on them."

"Really? You're going to their base tomorrow? Do ya mind if I join you? I want to go and get this girl, Kate, her fiance back. He went to go and talk to the Gehrich Gang leader, and I've gotta go rescue him." she stated, still upbeat. "Plus I've got a few things to say to their leader myself."

Dart smiled. He had always liked Meru's attitude. She brought an interesting flavour to the group. Something they needed.

"I'd be glad to have you join us." Dart told her.

"Awesome!" she said twirling on the spot, before marching up to him, and jabbing a finger on his armour. "And don't go getting any ideas. Just 'cause your good looking, doesn't mean I'm going to let you do what you want with me. I mean, I know I'm sexy, so you can look all you want, but you don't get to touch."

Dart decided to tease her a bit. "Oh? Who would? You can't be any older then fourteen."

Meru noticeably got red with anger. "I'll have you know I'm well over nine hun-"

She stopped and held her hands up to her mouth, and looked at Dart with worry.

"Sorry, could you repeat that?" Dart grinned. "I didn't quite catch that."

"I said nineteen." she stated, calming herself down. "I might look younger, but I'm really nineteen."

Dart laughed quietly, muttering his next words. "I guess I'll take you up on that invite to look."

"Huh? What did you say?" Meru asked.

"Nothing." Dart answered, remembering they still had to introduce themselves. "Names, Dart."

"And I'm the super sexy and single, and best dancer in all of Donau, Meru." She almost shouted.

Dart smiled, moving to tease her again. "So... can I just call you Meru for short? Super-sexy-and-single-and-best-dancer-in-all-of-Donau-Meru is a bit of a mouthful after all."

She blushed slightly. "Just Meru is fine."

Dart pretended he didn't hear her, as he turned to walk away.

"Hey, where ya going?" she shouted, thinking he was just leaving her behind.

"Back to the inn where the rest of my group is staying." he answered.

"Ooh, can I meet them?" she asked.

"That was the plan. Now let's go."

Just as they got to the inn, Dart suddenly stopped just outside the doors. "So, out of curiosity, what brings a Wingly to these parts?"

Meru froze, the only thing that kept her from running was that Dart seemed like a good guy, obviously knowing what she was from the start, and not seeming to care. "How did you know?"

"Typical traits of the Wingly species include platinum or silver coloured hair, red eyes, and are almost always far more good looking, then most humans." Dart stated. "You fit all of those."

"But... the only Winglies left are those in the... in my home."

Dart sighed. "Ever heard of a man named Lloyd?"

"No."

"He's a Wingly."

Meru took a sharp breath. "That means... So we're not dying out."

"Dying out? As far as I know Winglies can live for thousands upon thousands of years." Dart noted. "Not exactly a race that seems capable of dying out."

"I guess you have a point there." She muttered. "Anyways! Let's go meet those friends of yours. Oh, and, uh, can we keep me being a Wingly quiet?"

"Impossible. Everyone else will know what you are after a quick look at you."

Meru sighed. "Oh, well."

"On the bright side, you won't have to hide the fact that you can do magic from us."

Meru smiled. "That's true, isn't it."

**~The Inn in Donau~**

The group looked up as the door opened and Dart climbed over Kongol, a girl following him. Kongol's presence not doing anything to stop the door from opening, since it opened outwards.

"A Wingly?" Lavits asked. "I guess if you brought her here, she's going to be the next Dragoon to join this group. Does she have her stone yet, or will we end up getting it soon?"

"How should I know?" Dart asked. "But she is joining us, at least temporarily, unless she decides to stick with us."

"Cut the crap, Dart! We want you to tell us the truth." Lavits snarled. "Because you refuse to tell us anything, Rose got injured, and lost her stone."

Everyone else, save Kongol, nodded in agreement. They all wanted to know what was going on.

Meru looked hesitant, and grabbed Dart's arm, pulling on it to get his attention. "Uh, I think maybe I came at a bad time."

Dart pulled his arm from her. "It's fine, you'll probably want to hear this as well. Before I begin, I want to know that none of you are going to think I'm crazy."

"At this point I think anything is possible, whether you're some sort of seer, or whether you time travelled somehow." Albert said.

"Everyone else is in agreement, about the time travel bit?" Dart asked. All but Lavits and Meru nodded almost instantly.

Lavits too nodded after a short while.

It made sense after all. Either Dart was a seer, or he had come from the future. Both were farfetched normally, but since they're the only things that made sense to begin with, they were also the only possibilities.

"Just what's going on?" Meru asked. "Why do you need us to think you're not crazy?"

Albert and Lavits explained all the things they noticed quickly.

Meru shrugged when they were done. "Meh, I'll buy it. I mean, if Winglies once managed to make a device to allow other creatures to share in our life span, though we have no idea what happened to it, or how to make another one, then I can believe that it's possible to send someone back in time.

Dart sighed, as he sat down in a chair, Meru moving over to sit next to Shana on the bed.

"First things first, the girl is Meru, she's a Wingly as you've all noticed. And she'll be joining us on our journey." Dart said, receiving several nods and one confused look, from the girl in question. "Well, I guess there's no more putting this off. To start with, the reason I haven't told you yet is because you'd all likely think I was insane.

"Anyways, this all started when the Moon That Never Sets, blew up. We had just finished fighting Melbu Frahma, and the moon exploded. We all tried to escape the explosion, but we weren't fast enough. The closest one to escaping was Meru, but even she didn't outrun the explosion. I survived, not because I outran it, but because my Dragoon Armour provided me with the best defences of all of us, and even then I was heavily injured.

"It turned out that Melbu Frahma had survived, although, I don't know how, especially when he himself was dying inside the center of the moon. Anyways, after I managed to gather up the Dragoon Stones that were left behind by your bodies, the creator Soa, whom we all previously thought was trying to remake the world by having Melbu Frahma, in the form of the Virage Embryo, cleanse it, appeared before me.

"The Virage Embryo is only supposed to be inhabited by the Moon Child, but somehow Melbu Frahma did so in it's place. Anyways, after the creator appeared in front of me, it offered me a chance to fix what had happened, and I took it. I've only got one more shot, or he'll leave the world to it's fate. He sent me back in time with only my memories and mind, to take possession of my body just before I got involved in the Serdian war.

"From there, I've been slowly and steadily making changes. For example, Lavits, your were originally supposed to have died charging Lloyd, who killed you with the Dragon Buster."

"WHAT?" Meru shouted. "That bastard! He stole our Dragon Buster?"

"Meru, please?" Dart asked.

She blushed. "Oops. Sorry."

"Anyways, Albert was then supposed to become the Jade Dragoon, but instead he's became the Dragoon of Feyrbrand. Kongol never joined us until he found us fighting the Gehrich Gang in his home, the resting place of the Giganto's. On top of that, originally, Mappi stole my stone, not Rose's.

"Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time remembering some things cause it's been so long, and I never actually thought I'd need to remember every detail. So sometimes things remain the same when I should have changed them, or things happen similar to last time, because I couldn't remember enough about what happened."

Everyone was silent until Meru asked something.

"Um, by Dragoons, do you mean those old people who fought in the really old war a long long time ago?"

"The Dragon Campaign? Yes." Dart answered.

"Okay." she nodded. "Um, also... didn't it occur to you that maybe... Soa lied to you? That maybe you did win and he was tricking you to give his side a second chance."

"Why would he when I would know more about what to do?"

"Cause then you might screw up, ignoring something important that you had no idea was important, and allowing him to win." she shrugged. "Us Winglies don't like Soa for a reason. It was always his intention to end our races."

Dart blinked. "That... actually makes a lot of sense. Especially considering everything we'd learned about Soa."

"Great." Lavits groaned. "So now we don't even know if we should or shouldn't do something cause it might just turn out that our own god wants us all dead."

Albert sighed. "This situation keeps getting more and more complex."

"You've got that right." Rose answered.

"Rose!" half the room turned.

"Dart." Rose stated. "Tomorrow, we're going to the Valley of Corrupted Gravity and we're getting my Dragoon stone back. We're going to murder every last one of the Gehrich members."

"They're not in the Valley of Corrupted Gravity." Dart noted. "They're in the Home of Giganto's.

"Leave Gehrich himself to me." Haschel answered. "I'm positive he's an old student, and I'll be the one to end his life if he's really turned to crime."

"I lead through home." Kongol said. "Kongol knows all shortcuts and secrets of Home of Giganto."

"Settled then. We'll fly past the Valley of Corrupted Gravity, and wipe out the Gehrich Gang." Lavits nodded. "Then we'll continue looking for Lloyd."

"No. We have to give the rest of you more battle experience. We'll walk through the Valley. There's a Virage there. A whole one, and you all should know how to fight them." Dart told the group. "Rose, can you still access magic, or is it completely blocked."

Rose was silent for several seconds. "The magic from the Dragoon stone is blocked, but my body still seems to have some of it's own I can access."

"Good, it might come in handy." Dart said. "Everyone, get a good nights rest, cause within the next few days, we're not gonna be stopping too often."

Every one nodded, and left for their own rooms, except for Meru and Rose.

"Meru, your welcome to stay here with us if you want." Dart told the Wingly girl.

"Really? That'd be great."

"Although you'll have to share a bed with someone." he told her. "I don't have a problem with it, but you'll have to keep your hands to yourself."

Meru grinned. "Thanks for the offer boss, but I think I'll pass and just meet up with you all tomorrow."

As she ran out of the room, Dart was confused. "Boss?"

"Dart... this is my room. Get out." Rose told him.

"R-right." Dart said, forgetting he was in Rose's room, and running as fast his legs could carry him.

**~Valley of Corrupted Gravity~**

"Damn." Dart cursed. "I forgot about that massive gate."

"Well, we can fly can't we?" Meru said. "Let's just go over it."

Lavits agreed. "She has a point."

"I concur." Albert nodded. "I'll carry Rose."

"H-hold on." Dart stuttered, annoyed at how quickly they were going to resort using their Dragoon forms. "We should go back a little ways an-"

He was cut off by Lavits and Shana transforming, followed by everyone else save Rose, Meru and Kongol.

"Dart," Shana started. "stop worrying so much. It'll be fine."

Forced to agree, Dart followed the others example and transformed, Kongol mimicking him.

Albert picked Rose up, and Meru's wings of light appeared as she began flying next to Dart.

"You know, Dart," Meru began. "You have to lighten up. Sure the whole thing is pretty serious, but you're just gonna go crazy if you don't live in the moment once and awhile."

"Oh, he can be fun." Lavits said from behind them, ignoring the guards below them shouting and pointing. "I think he's just upset because he couldn't stop Rose from losing her Dragoon stone."

Meru's next words sounded mischievous. "So Dart likes Rose? And I mean really really likes her?"

Dart rolled his eyes. "No I don't. Rose is cool and all, and I had a crush on her during my original journey, but that passed when I found out exactly who she was. Put a rather brutal stop to it actually."

"We should land." Haschel said. "If Dart says we need more battle experience we should land."

"Not so much battle experience, as I mean experience fighting a particular creature that we can find in this place." Dart noted as they all landed just beyond the gate into the valley.

Rose, getting on her own feet, frowned. "This place was one of the biggest battle grounds between the Dragoons and the Winglies, if I recall my history correctly. The magic used is what caused this place to earn it's name as the Valley of Corrupted Gravity. And if what we have to fight is what I think it is, we're only going to contribute more magic to this place's corruption."

"Let's get going then!" Meru cheered.

Shana smiled. "Yea."

"Fine." Dart sighed. "No point in waiting around here after all."

As the others made a hm-like noise, in agreement, they started walking through the massive and confusing valley.

**~The Gate into the Valley of Corrupted Gravity~**

"Oi, Roy!" a guard yelled.

"What is it, Captain Ike?" Roy called back.

Ike pointed to the sky. "Did you see those flying people above us?"

"Sure did." Roy nodded. "What do you think we should do?"

"Alert the King. Hold up a minute and I'll write up what I saw about each of them." Ike said. "I'm sure one of them was a Wingly. Flying on Wings of Light just like in the legends."

Roy grimaced. "I hope they're not trying to enslave us all again."

"Well, we're alerting the King and he'll tell the palace guard, so at least we'll be prepared. He'll probably send a missive to Mille Sesseau, and Serdio, and then we'll be prepared and on the lookout." Ike pointed out.

Roy grinned, before frowning. "They're headed to the Death Frontier. Or more importantly, to where the Gehrich Gang is located. Right? What if they're working with the gang?"

"Then they're more trouble then we thought." Ike swallowed at the implications, finishing up his notes. "Quick, get that to the king immediately. Send our fastest messengers."

"Yes sir!" Roy saluted, before running off to do as asked.

Ike bit his lip as Roy ran to the messengers tent. "I pray to Soa that a war that big isn't going to be on our hands."

_**~Chapter End~**_

Well, there's the 12th chapter. Not very long, but I hope it made up for the long wait.


	13. Chapter 13

First, I would like to apologize for a very long wait. You have all been very patient with me, and I apologize. Taking so long to update without even giving a notice to any of you was unforgivable. Though I do have a few reasons, I'm also sure none of you care about them. So instead, I'm just going to get back into the story, and hope you'll forgive me.

_**~Chapter 13~**_

Dart panted lightly as he killed another of those annoying spider urchin. It was bad enough that getting hit by them was painful, if not exactly life threatening, but then they'd put up a physical attack barrier which protected them from all physical damage.

That meant everyone was forced to attack with magic. Kongol, not able to even grasp the idea of how to perform magic outside of his Dragoon form, had been spending nearly the entire time in his Dragoon form, running on the instinctual magic the dragoon form granted him.

It was certainly racking him up experience in how to remain in his Dragoon form outside of battle. So much so, that Dart was contemplating making all of them practice staying in the form, and practising to stay completely calm in it, so that they could use the form at will. Kongol was certainly showing that practice could certainly help in that aspect.

In order to transform into a Dragoon one needed to be feeling the rage of battle. Or simply simulate the rage of battle. In other words rage, or anger, was the key to the transformation. If they could learn to remain completely peaceful in their Dragoon forms, then they could activate the form at will and use next to zero energy on maintaining the form.

Of course, this was all theory, and any training in such a thing would have to be done during their travels.

He did remember however that the last time they went through the valley, there was far less spider urchins, and that the large amount of them this time was certainly contributing to his thought process.

"Hey, Dart!" Lavits called out from a little ahead of him as he stabbed another of those vicious birds, called a roc, through the head. "That statue up above us... that's the virage right? I remember the one we fought in Villude looked similar to that before it came to life."

Dart looked to where he was pointing. It was far above them, but still very much recognizable.

"Yea. That's a virage."

Rose sighed in relief. "I was worried it might have been a Super Virage."

Albert looked at her. "Super Virage?"

She explained. "According to the history books the Winglies experimented on their living weapons, and modified them to be insanely powerful. They look very different from their normal counterparts, being much smaller, or so it's said. But they're supposedly far stronger. Or at least, that's what the humans were told at the end of the war by the dying Diaz. Having met a wingly who wasn't evil, I found that they're merely just a stronger subspecies."

It was true. Sort of. Charle Frahma had told them as many secrets as she had managed to extract before betraying her destructive kin.

"Yea... we'll probably end up fighting two. One was half dead, and died mid-battle from it's previous wounds. The second... well, it was an insane battle, and all of us nearly died at least a dozen times." Dart explained. "This time, I expect us to kill it without much effort, hopefully. But first, this one up here will have to die."

"Be careful, they have a special attack that will kill anything instantly." Rose warned. "It's a beam, and you can see it charge it up. In your Dragoon forms, it will merely knock you out."

The group nodded, with a few swallowing saliva in anticipation. All except Meru. "Wait a second! Rose and I aren't able to turn into Dragoons. And we're supposed to help kill it?"

Dart turned to Meru. "Don't worry, you're a wingly. It probably won't even target you. It didn't last time. Still, it's best if you and Rose stick off to the side for now."

What Dart said was true. Meru had only been hit once last time around, and only because she got in the direct line of fire. Otherwise the Virage ignored her, the winglies magical hold over it lasting still to this day, and protecting her from being attacked by the monstrosity. Of course, she hadn't been flying at the time either, and couldn't evade half as well as she could now.

Meru nodded. "Gotcha, boss!"

Dart sighed. She hadn't ever referred to him as boss last time around, but now she probably wouldn't call him anything else. "Please, just call me Dart."

Meru laughed, and began floating ahead. "No can do, boss! It annoys you, so I'm gonna keep doing it!"

Albert clapped him on the shoulder, giving him a knowing smile. "It's best if we just keep moving."

Dart chuckled as the group pushed forward.

Despite everything, he honestly thought things were much better then last time. The group was joking with each other much more, and things were far less stressful. Of course, he, Albert, Haschel, Rose, and Shana didn't have Lavits' death hanging over them.

Pushing forward, and killing what few monsters entered their path, as few monsters wandered near the Virage, the group finally came upon the Virage statue. From this point they could see where the valley ended, connecting to the path just beyond the Virage.

Dart gave the group a swift pep talk. "Well, this is it, you guys. Rose and I will hang back, as we've had plenty of experience against these things. Meru, if it starts to charge up it's death beam, fall back, just to be safe."

"What?" Lavits sounded confused. "Rose has fought them before?"

"Of course. You didn't think her knowledge was based completely on books? She had the fun part of experiencing things too." Dart told him, easily covering his slip. "Anyways, if things start to turn sour, I'll swoop in and kill it."

Kongol transformed instantly, followed by the others, and led the charge towards it. They hadn't made it halfway to the Virage when it attacked.

From his vantage point, Dart could watch the entire battle.

"How do you think they'll do?" Rose asked.

"They'll be fine." Dart smirked. "So, why not tell me about your allies in the Dragon Campaign? Or some bits about the battles? You know, give me some knowledge from someone who experienced it first hand."

Rose sighed. "Well, your father was our leader. He found me when I was just a little girl, shortly after he became a Dragoon. He was the one who helped me become a Dragoon, and to get my dragon Michael. By the time I turned 20, we had recruited all the others, though Syuveil and Belzac were Dragoons before me. They were the Jade and Golden Dragoons respectively.

"I was here at this valley when this battle took place. We lost Damia here. She was the youngest of us, at 15. I sort of took her in like the daughter I never had. This was her third full scale battle, and she died here. None of us know what happened to her, we just found her dead after the battle ended. There must have been a hundred wingly corpses surrounding her. Her hammer was found stuck in one of them, and water and ice from her magic was everywhere.

"After that we had a few more battles, but nothing overly important happened in them. No big names defeated, and no more deaths on our side. Not until the final battle. Belzac died trying to save Shirley, but she refused to leave his side, and they ended up dying together. Crushed to death."

Dart nodded, listening carefully while watching the others fight the Virage.

It was pitiful really. Last time it seemed so much more difficult, but he had been moving a lot, and hadn't paid attention to the others. This time he was only watching, and they seemed to be having a fun time knocking it about. It's style of fighting was 'kill everything', and tried for little else.

Rose continued. "Kansas, Syuveil, and I fought a Super Virage together, while Zeig went after Melbu Frahma. Syuveil and I were forced back by an attack, and Kansas grabbed it's head. He had recieved a fairly fatal injury and then told it, and I quote 'Not bad. But I'm taking you with me.' and then he released all the built up power of his Dragoon, and exploded.

"Syuveil and I split up after that. He went to go and stop the other Winglies from interfering in Zeig and Melbu's fight, while I went to help Zeig. I got there too late however. Zeig had killed Frahma and Frahma had cursed Zeig to an eternal sleep in stone. Petrification, which has no cure."

Dart nodded, glad to know how his father had ended up in his time period. 11,000 years was a bit too long for a normal human, even if he was a Dragoon, to live. He watched as Meru fired off a massive Fireball knocking the Virage back, and Kongol attacked from above, using the earth magic to increase the size of his axe, allowing him to split the Virage down the middle.

"What about Syuveil?" Dart asked, as he got up to walk over to the others with Rose.

"I found him on earth thousands of miles below the wingly capital. I managed to save his body from being crushed by the falling city. Zeig's had melded to the city, and I was forced to leave his statue behind. I couldn't get to Shirley or Belzac's bodies at all, and Kansas had blown himself up leaving nothing left. I buried Syuveil at Vellweb, next to Damia, and then I left to the only wingly settlement that had stayed out of the war. It was there that I found out everything else, which led me to this point in time. We couldn't find any of their Dragoon spirits after their deaths. Shirley obviously became a ghost and somehow took hers and ran with it."

Dart nodded, looking forward as the Virage, split in half, struggled towards Shana.

"Oh shit." he shouted, running forward, just in case. Rose frowned, catching his hand. "What?"

"We need to do something about her." Rose told him. "We're fine, since we know what she is. We can't become her thralls. The others however, don't know what she is, and will become her thralls over time. Lavits for example is becoming increasingly infatuated with her."

Dart nodded. "We can't kill her. Just trust me on this Rose. I do have a plan. But you do have a point. We need to tell the others what she is, without telling her."

Rose nodded. "Fine. I'll trust you."

As the two ran, the others prepared to attack, while Shana, backing away, no longer in her Dragoon form, let loose a light from her forehead that knocked the Virage back. Both halves fell in different areas. One landed next to Haschel, while the other half fell to whatever was below the valley of corrupted gravity.

Shana grabbed her head, and then fell forwards. Lavits, reacting swiftly, caught her. She had blacked out, that last burst of power probably knocking her unconscious, considering how involved she was in the fight this time compared to last time.

"Is she alright?" Albert asked, worried.

"She's fine." Dart stated. "Is she out cold?"

Lavits nodded.

"Good. I told you all about the Virage Embryo the other day. What I didn't tell you is that Shana is the Moon Child that is supposed to inhabit it. I'm trying to work out something to kill the Virage Embryo and it's spirit, but without killing Shana. Sadly, I'm not having very good luck. You can't tell her about this. I don't know how the spirit of the Virage will react, and I have no idea how she will react."

Lavits swallowed and looked at her, before looking back at Dart. "Alright. If it's to save her I can keep it from her."

Albert nodded too but his curious nature refused to let it stop there. "I have to know, what happens if you can't think of anything?"

"I don't know. If I can't, then, as long as she doesn't get to the Moon That Never Sets it'll be fine. If she does, she won't be Shana anymore. Our target isn't Shana, she's done nothing wrong. Our target is the Virage Embryo once it's born in full." Dart told them.

Meru frowned, being uncharacteristically serious. "Isn't that a bit risky? Wouldn't it... I don't know how to say it, but I guess I'll be blunt, but wouldn't it be better to, you know, do her in, before that happens?"

Rose sighed, and thought up a good excuse without revealing her own past. She wasn't ready yet. "I used to think so, but he raised a good point. One day, the Black Monster could end up dead due to someone else like Dart, but who hasn't learned the truth. If that happens nothing would stop the God of Destruction from destroying us all. It's best that us, Dragoons, the strongest available fighters, attempt to destroy it now, for good. If we fail, then the world ends sooner then it would have. If not, then we've saved it for good. At least, from this threat at any rate."

Haschel nodded. "It's a big risk. But the payout could be huge."

Kongol frowned. "Is like take maybe fatal blow and give maybe fatal blow back?"

Dart nodded. "Exactly like that, Kongol."

Kongol nodded, glad to have understood.

The group agreed that keeping it from her was the best, though Lavits' reasoning did worry Dart a little.

Still, now that he thought about it, the entire thrall thing was probably why the entire village of Seles loved her. Everyone Shana met loved her. There was no exceptions. Dart himself remembered caving in and going against his personal sibling feelings to try for a romantic relationship with Shana because she wanted it.

Surprisingly, knowing she was the Moon Child on his second run through his journey had stopped him from feeling the effects. Probably because he knew about the Moon Child's abilities from Rose, and was prepared to avoid them.

Strangely, the effects had vanished through time travel, which meant the thrall thing was probably connected to the body in some way, as well as the mind, because his younger body had been away from Shana for a long time, and hadn't been under the effects as long as everybody else in the village.

After all, it had taken him 5 years to end up in Seles. Mille Sesseau had differing laws about what age children were considered adults, and that age was 10. and he had left the orphanage then heading south. Once he had ended up in Seles, he had been taken in by Shana's parents, and spent 8 years with them. Most of his time was spent learning the sword from Tasman, while what little free time he had was spent with Shana.

His goal of pursuing the Black Monster had probably kept him from becoming a true thrall of hers, as he had been nursing the idea of revenge long before he met Shana. And then he had left. Upon returning the last time around, he had run straight to find her, and spent a long time around her, solely focused on her, which is probably what had ensnared him the first time.

This time, his focus was on killing the Virage Embryo. The very thing that was trying to ensnare him, which probably was what was helping Shana overcome her feelings for him, as it was doubtful the spirit would want anything to do with a being that desired it's end.

Looking past the Virage, Lavits' walked past him, Shana in his arms. "Lavits?"

"We mustn't stop moving just because Shana is out of it." he said. "She wouldn't want that, though she also wouldn't want to be left behind. This is a solution."

Dart nodded. "Good thinking." Before he could say anything else, a weight appeared on his back.

"Hey, boss! Didja see? I was totally awesome and totally pretty in that fight. Right?" Meru cheerfully asked.

Dart chuckled. Her cheerfulness was certainly contagious. "You bet, although I have to say, Kongol did a little more awesome then you, what with killing it and all. But you definitely have him beat in the pretty department."

Meru grinned. "Well, I hope so. Right Kongol?"

Kongol grunted affirmatively. Dart had agreed after all. Strong people were always right to him, and that meant Dart was always right.

Rose rolled her eyes. "This isn't a game, wingly, stop acting like you're on some childish adventure."

"Come on now, Rose. Cheer up a little." Albert tried. "We will get your Dragoon spirit back, and then everything will be fine."

Rose said nothing. It wasn't just her spirit she was worried about. If the bandits found out about the Choker's abilities to grant eternal life, one might just take it and run. And then she was down her eternal lifespan, and her dragoon spirit. It was unlikely, but it was a risk. A risk she wasn't willing to take, which is why she wanted to get there as fast as she possibly, could.

Dart realized that, in the moment her eyes connected to his. Even last time, all she needed to do was just give him a look and he seemed to know mostly what she meant. It was a strange connection, but it had saved them in a lot of fights where they had used combination tactics to take down their foes.

As he was the leader of their little group, most probably wouldn't begin walking until he gave the okay. "Okay, let's get a move on. Everyone, on the way, I want you all to try walking in your Dragoon forms. Kongol gave me a new idea, and honestly, it's the best idea I've ever had."

As he said this, and began walking after Lavits, he transformed.

"We stay in this form when we don't need to, and try to keep calm and peaceful, while maintaining the form, and eventually, it won't cost us any energy to maintain. I'll have you know, not being able to maintain the form for long periods of time, and exerting too much energy, nearly cost us several battles." **(1)**

The group nodded, and soon, a group of heavily armoured winged warriors was walking towards the Home of Gigantos. Naturally their was two amongst them who were much less armoured. Rose kept to the center of the group. Looking the least dangerous, she would be the first target. Meru kept flying above them keeping an open for anything that might pose a threat.

_**~Once More With Changes~**_

King Zior frowned heavily as the report was finished.

"How did you say they flew again?" he asked for confirmation.

"They wore bulky armour, most of them, and flew on wings similar to a bats, only coloured green, with the top edges being the same as their amour." the soldier told him.

"It isn't winglies. Winglies were said to fly on wings of light. The Dragoons however were said to fly wearing bulky armour." Zior noted to himself. "It must be Dragoons."

The soldier frowned remembering another line in the report. "It wasn't just those kinds either. One was a normal human, being carried in the arms of the biggest of them, and another was a platinum haired girl flying on wings of light, just as you described the winglies used to."

Now Zior frowned for a second time. "If winglies are working with Dragoons, then that means one of three things. One outcome is that the Dragoons of this generation have forsaken humans, another is that that wingly is a rogue wingly. And the last... is that whatever evil the Dragoons are combating this time, it is far more then just winglies and the virage."

A man in a purple robe spoke up. "King Zior... perhaps these people are merely travelling? Perhaps the Dragoons are immortal, and are merely travelling for fun and we are severely overlooking this incident. It is also possible that they're sorting out as many problems as they can, and recently got wind of the Gehrich Gang."

King Zior nodded. "That is also a possibility, but I was taught to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I want the castles defences doubled. There will be no new knights for the next year being stationed in the castle, no matter how swiftly they rise in ranks. They will be put on outpost duty to prevent any infiltration."

"Oi, that's bull. I had a few knights I was looking forward to seeing guarding us on my birthday in a few weeks." Lenus, under the guise of Emile half-shouted.

"Silence Emile." Zior shouted, the situation making him panic and act much differently then he normally would. "I'm glad that you have opened up a lot more, but should you speak to me in such a way again, I will reconsider whether it is you who will be my heir or Lisa."

Lenus schooled her features, not willing to risk not getting the Moon Dagger. Lloyd would be beyond upset with her if that happened.

Zior looked back at the soldier in front of him. "Send word to the others, and send the head knight in on your way out."

As the soldier left, the head knight came in, and knelt. "Yes, my lord?"

"No one is to enter the castle except for Fester. No one. Only the King of Serdio, and the Queen of Mille Sesseau, and only if I alert you that they have sent notice that they are coming." Zior ordered.

Lisa spoke up. "What of the Dragoons? Law states that they are only below the King or Queen in every country. It also states that because they are treated as they highest calibre of Knight in every country, we cannot refuse them access to our castle. Especially so if it interferes with their duties. Isn't that right Fes-"

Emile interrupted. "So remove the damn law! Father said no one, and no one includes the Dragoons."

Zior shook his head. "Even if we wanted to stop the Dragoons, we couldn't. We don't have the power to stop them. They would annihilate us. It's simply better to allow them access, but only if they prove they are Dragoons. All I know is that they're human in appearance normally, but can take on the form of a winged and armoured knight, an armour that is nearly impenetrable. Tell them to take on that form to prove they're a Dragoon. Of course anyone with them is allowed in as well, to avoid angering them, understood Zelgius?"

The head knight, now revealed to be named Zelgius, nodded. "Of course, King Zior, though I do confess to wanting a chance to test a Dragoon in combat. Is that everything?"

"Yes. Thank you, Zelgius. I fear that even your amazing prowess with a blade would be no match for a Dragoon. Perhaps in their human state though..." King Zior left the sentence hanging.

"Of course. Though I will refrain from attacking unless a spar is initiated, or they wish to do harm here."

"Excellent!" Zior nodded. "That is all."

Emile didn't wait for Zelgius to leave, walking right past him as if he didn't exist.

"My lord, one last thing."

Zior held up a hand. "I have heard your worries of my daughter, but I do not share them. Should you prove correct, and I still live, I will never again ignore your advice, Zelgius."

Zelgius sighed. "Very well, though I wish for one of my personal guards to be assigned to Princess Lisa's room, for her safety at least."

Zior nodded, knowing exactly what Zelgius hadn't said. He would have some plan in place to protect Lisa, or get her out of the castle and seeking safety in the south. Albert was a kind man, and would show no hesitation in taking in Princess Lisa. And if that was impossible, then he would at least arrange for her safety elsewhere.

Still, he greatly hoped Zelgius was wrong. If he was right, then that could spell the end of Tiberoa.

_**~Chapter End~**_

Well that's Chapter 13. Hopefully you enjoyed it.

**(1) **You may have noticed this number in brackets at some point. And that was because I wanted to explain something.

In the game the Dragoon Form time limit was hell annoying. And I'm sure you all would have preferred being able to switch between the two at will, so long as you had the spirit power for a single transformation. Well, as this is a game, and not a story, character don't know how much time they have left in their form, and as such, in the original time line, in this case the games story, I figured that the sudden loss of power would have caused dangerous results.

As such, I began to think. Rose once said that the Dragoon stone harnesses 'the insanity of war'. To me that's rage, or anger. Since humans fight by entering an angering state, essentially a state of insanity, it occurred to me that since the Super Saiyan transformation from DBZ, which is also fuelled by anger, was mastered the way Dart explained earlier, by both Goku and Gohan, that the Dragoon state could also be mastered the same way.

Remaining calm and holding onto reason, while maintaining the form should allow for the form to be utterly mastered, enabling instant transformation between forms without wasting energy on maintaining the state and only burning energy on attacking while in that state.

Anyways, that's just my opinion. If any of you have something better, feel free to explain in a review.

As always, tell me what you thought of the chapter, and notify me of any seriously, story debilitating, mistakes I made.


	14. DO NOT REVIEW!

**_DO NOT REVIEW THIS NOTICE!_**

Hey guys.

It's been quite a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that.

I'd like to let you all know that I have _not _abandoned this. I have just not been as hard working on it as I could be. Things have been going very slowly with this story. Consider it like this. The stove only has this story on it, but it's still on the back burner. It's one of the first stories that I ever made a full plan for, so I won't be abandoning it. I will however be taking a _very _long time with updates for this story.

That said, the next chapter _is_ in progress, and if things continue at the current pace, it might be done by Halloween. But no promises.

So sorry for getting your hopes up.

Also, if you feel a burning desire to talk to me about this, do not review to this. PM me. Any reviews to this notice will be deleted, and not even looked at, not even if you give me proof of groundbreaking science that I could steal to make billions.

**_DO NOT REVIEW THIS NOTICE!_**


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